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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a gelatinized stock made from simmered meats, vegetables, and seasonings, clarified with egg whites and set with gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the meats in a kettle and cover with cold water.

  2. Simmer for five hours.

  3. Add the browned seasonings and vegetables an hour before finishing.

Strain and skim

  1. Strain the stock.

  2. Remove all fat when cold.

Clarify and set

  1. Stir in beaten egg whites to clarify the stock.

  2. Add gelatin that has been softened 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Adds savory meaty flavor and body to the stock as it simmers.
Shin of beef
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the stock rich flavor and body.
Knuckle of veal
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin, adding body and a silky mouthfeel to the stock.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled stock into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Egg whites
Their proteins coagulate and trap cloudy particles, which are then removed to clarify the stock.
Onions
Browned onions add color and deeper, sweeter savory flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg whites. Egg white proteins coagulate as the stock heats and trap cloudy particles, which are then strained out. Whites added without slow, even heating or stirred in too roughly will not trap particles well, leaving the stock cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, turnip, sherry, beef, veal, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, turnip, sherry, beef, veal, 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.

More aspic recipes

Chicken 77Meat 26Tomato 25Jelly 16Lobster 14Beef 10 See all 167 →

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