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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly made from veal, ham, calf's foot, and aromatics, set with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and carrot 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 Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the veal, ham, calf's foot, cloves, onion, carrot, and savory herbs in a pot with 2 quarts of water.

  2. Boil gently until the liquid is reduced by more than half.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  4. Remove all fat and sediment from the liquid.

Clarify and set

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly with white wine, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and egg whites.

  2. Stir continuously until it nearly boils and becomes white.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Cover and let it settle, then strain through a jelly bag 2-3 times until clear.

  5. Pour the clear jelly into a mold soaked in cold water.

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 + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

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

  4. White wine + cidertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot
Adds gelatin, which lets the cooled liquid set into a firm jelly.
Veal knuckle-bone
Releases gelatin and savory body into the stock during long, gentle simmering.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping suspended particles so the jelly can be strained clear.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until the clarifying mixture nearly boils. Stirring keeps the egg whites evenly dispersed so they rise and coagulate around sediment. Letting it boil hard or stop stirring can break up the raft, leaving the jelly cloudy.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, clove, onion, white wine, cider, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, clove, onion, white wine, cider, vinegar. 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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