Skip to main content
Main

Quick Aspic Jelly

A gelatinized broth made with vegetables, beef extract, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Quick Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Combine 1½ cups cold water, chopped carrot, chopped celery, onion slice, parsley, bay leaf, and cloves in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve 1 teaspoon beef extract in 1 cup hot water and add to the saucepan.

  3. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the gelatine

  1. Soak ½ box of gelatin in ½ cup cold water for 1 hour, then add to the saucepan.

  2. Stir until the gelatin is fully dissolved.

Finish and set

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and sherry if desired.

  2. Add caramel for color if needed.

  3. Strain the mixture through a double cloth.

  4. Use immediately for molding or pour into a shallow pan to set for garnishing.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the strained liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly when it cools.
Beef extract
Adds concentrated meaty flavor that gives the clear stock its savory taste.
Carrot
Contributes subtle sweetness and aroma to the flavored stock.
Celery
Adds savory aroma to the flavored stock.

The step that matters

Stir until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Undissolved gelatine leaves grains and weak spots in the set jelly. It must be fully melted into the hot liquid before straining, so the aspic sets evenly and clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, parsley, clove, beef, pepper, sherry):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, parsley, clove, beef, pepper, sherry. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes