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Aspic or Ornamental Savory Jelly

A gelatinous savory dish made from veal, ham, poultry trimmings, vegetables, herbs, and clarified with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Aspic or Ornamental Savory Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the ham pieces in the bottom of a stew-pan.

  2. Add the veal and poultry trimmings on top of the ham.

  3. Add the sliced carrots, onion, sweet herbs, cloves, sherry, salt, white pepper, and cold water.

  4. Simmer gently for 4 hours, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.

  5. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into an earthen dish and let it cool.

  6. Remove any fat that forms on the surface.

Clarify and strain

  1. Transfer the liquid to a clean stew-pan, leaving sediment behind.

  2. Add the egg whites to clarify and stir over heat until the mixture is very white.

  3. Let it stand until clear, then strain through a cloth or jelly bag.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Clove + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,237 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin into the liquid, which lets the finished aspic set firm.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock.
Egg whites
Trap suspended particles as they cook, clarifying the liquid to a clear result.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and skim. A gentle simmer keeps the stock clear, since boiling breaks up fat and solids into the liquid. Skimming removes scum before it re-mixes, and clear stock sets into a cleaner aspic.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, carrot, onion, clove, sherry, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, carrot, onion, clove, sherry, egg. 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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