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Aspic of Meat

Aspic of Meat is a gelatinized stock made from various meats, herbs, and vegetables, set into a jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Aspic of Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Combine sliced onions and bacon in a stewpan.

  2. Add chicken, game, mutton, beef, calf's foot, bacon rind, parsley, thyme, garlic, carrots, clove, and small onions.

  3. Pour in water and set over medium heat.

  4. Cover the pan and cook until nearly done.

  5. Skim off grease with a ladle.

  6. Add boiling water to cover the mixture and finish cooking.

  7. Strain the juice and skim off any fat.

  8. Let it cool.

Clarify the juice

  1. If the juice is not clear, beat egg whites and add to the juice in the stewpan.

  2. Heat for 10 minutes while stirring.

  3. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.

  4. Strain again.

Set the aspic

  1. Pour a thin layer of juice (about ⅛ inch) into a mold and place it on ice until it sets into a jelly.

  2. Arrange cooked meats in the jelly, ensuring they do not touch the sides of the mold.

  3. Cover with the remaining juice to match the thickness of the bottom layer.

  4. Place the mold in the refrigerator to set completely.

  5. Once set, dip the mold in warm water, invert onto a dish, and remove the mold to serve.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Calf's foot
Releases gelatin that lets the cooled juice set into a firm jelly.
Egg whites
Collect impurities as they coagulate, clearing the cloudy juice.
Bacon rind
Adds gelatin and savory fat to enrich the body and flavor of the stock.
Onions
Build savory depth and sweetness as they cook down into the stock.
Chicken
Contributes meaty flavor and tender cooked pieces suspended in the jelly.

The step that matters

Clarifying the juice with egg whites. Egg whites coagulate and trap cloudy particles as the stock heats; stirring while heating helps them form a raft that clears the juice. Heating too hard or not straining well leaves the aspic cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, meat, mutton, beef, parsley, thyme):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, meat, mutton, beef, parsley, thyme. 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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