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Chicken Aspic From the Stock

A chilled gelatin set of chicken stock with yolks, eggs, olives, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chicken Aspic From the Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the onion into pieces and add it to the stock.

  2. Let it sit or heat to season.

Make the aspic

  1. Soak the gelatin in ½ cup cold water.

  2. Pour the hot strained stock over the soaked gelatin.

  3. When nearly cold, pour the mixture into a mold.

Set and serve

  1. Add the yolks or whole eggs and the stuffed olives to the mold.

  2. Chill until set.

  3. Serve the chicken salad in the aspic, garnished with cucumber daisies on lettuce.

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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Gelatin + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Gelatin + oniontop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the stock into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Steamed stock
Provides the liquid and savory flavor that the gelatin sets into aspic.
Eggs
Add firm texture and richness in contrast to the clear jelly.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the mold when nearly cold. If the stock is still too hot, the gelatin cannot set properly and the aspic may stay soft. If it is too cold, it begins to set before filling the mold, leaving lumps and uneven layers. Gelatin sets as it cools, so timing matters.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, pepper, egg, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, pepper, egg, olive. 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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