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Aspic Jelly for Salads

A gelatinous stock-based jelly used as a dressing or garnish for salads.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,668 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly for Salads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until dissolved.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the dissolved gelatine with the beaten egg white and a little of the cold stock.

  3. Add cloves, onion, peppercorns, celery, and salt.

Clarify and set

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture through a napkin into a large mold or several small molds.

  3. Before it hardens, add asparagus tips or cooked cauliflower if desired.

  4. Refrigerate until set.

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. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

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

  5. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Egg white
Collects particles as it cooks, clarifying the stock so the jelly looks clear.
Clear stock
Forms the body of the jelly and carries the flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering the egg white and stock mixture. Once the egg white is added, the mixture must be brought to a boil and then simmered gently, not stirred hard. The egg white rises with the impurities and forms a raft that traps them, which clears the jelly. Vigorous stirring would break the raft and leave the jelly cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, onion, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, onion, celery. 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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