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Aspic of Meat

Aspic of Meat is a gelatinous dish made from various meats simmered in broth, clarified, and set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Aspic of Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine sliced onions and bacon in a stewpan.

  2. Add chicken, game meat, mutton, beef, calf's foot, bacon rind, parsley, thyme, garlic, carrots, clove, and small onions.

  3. Pour in water and set over medium heat.

  4. Cover the pan and cook until nearly done.

  5. Ladle off excess grease.

  6. Add boiling water to cover the mixture and finish cooking.

  7. Strain the juice and skim off any fat.

  8. If the juice is not clear, beat egg whites and add to the juice.

  9. Heat for 10 minutes while stirring, then remove from heat.

  10. Stir in lemon juice and strain again.

Set and serve

  1. Pour a thin layer of juice into a mold and refrigerate until set.

  2. Once the jelly is firm, layer in cooked meats without touching the sides.

  3. Cover with remaining juice to match the thickness of the bottom layer.

  4. Refrigerate until fully set.

  5. To serve, dip the mold in warm water, invert onto a dish, and remove the mold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot
Releases gelatin into the juice, which is what lets the aspic set firm.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat and trap cloudy particles, clarifying the juice.
Bacon rind
Adds gelatin and savoury fat to the stock, enriching body and flavour.
Onions
Build aromatic sweetness and depth in the stock as they cook down.
Lemon juice
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the flavour of the savoury jelly.

The step that matters

Skimming and clarifying the juice. Fat left in the stock stays cloudy and greasy, and the egg whites only clarify well when the juice is cool enough to skim thoroughly. Removing fat and particles gives a clear, clean-tasting jelly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, meat, mutton, beef, parsley, thyme):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, meat, mutton, beef, parsley, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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