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Aspic Jelly

Aspic is a savory gelatin 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, cover with cold water, and simmer for 5 hours.

  2. An hour before finishing, add the seasonings and browned vegetables.

  3. Strain the stock, which should reduce to 2 quarts.

Clarify and set

  1. When cold, remove all fat and stir in the beaten whites of 2 eggs to clarify.

  2. Add the 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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cooled stock into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Eggs (in the method)
Egg whites clarify the stock, collecting particles so it turns clear.
Shin of beef
Adds rich beef flavour and gelatin-rich body to the stock.
Knuckle of veal
Contributes collagen that gives the stock more body when it sets.

The step that matters

Removing the fat when cold. Fat left on the stock floats and clouds the jelly, and it can keep it from setting clear. Chilling lets the fat solidify so it can be lifted off cleanly before clarifying.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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

More aspic recipes

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

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