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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a clear gelatin made from galantine liquor, vegetables, ham, herbs, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the liquor

  1. Remove the fat from the galantine liquor.

  2. Pour the clear portion into a stewpan.

Make the aspic

  1. Add gelatine, onion, carrot, celery, ham, herbs, mace, allspice, pepper, and salt to the stewpan.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove, stirring occasionally until the gelatine is melted.

  3. Add the whisked egg whites and stir well.

  4. Bring gently to a boil.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Strain

  1. Strain through a flannel jelly bag, returning the aspic to the bag two or three times until clear.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Galantine liquor
Forms the flavourful base liquid that the aspic is built from.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Collect impurities as they heat, clearing the liquid when strained.
Ham
Adds savoury meaty flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Bring gently to a boil. Boiling vigorously breaks up the egg white raft and stirs cloudy particles back into the liquid. Heating slowly lets the whites rise and trap impurities, so the jelly strains clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, celery, ham, parsley, thyme, allspice):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, celery, ham, parsley, thyme, allspice. 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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