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Aspic Jelly

A gelatinous stock made from calf's feet, vegetables, herbs, and vinegar, set with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Wash the calves' feet in cold water.

  2. Place the feet in a stewpan with enough cold water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil to blanch the feet. Pour off the water and wash the feet again in cold water.

  3. Clean the stewpan. Return the feet to the stewpan. Add 2 quarts of water.

Make the stock

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming occasionally. Add ½ teaspoon of salt.

  2. Add all other ingredients except the lemon, eggs, and vinegars. Let the mixture boil gently for 5 hours.

  3. Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a basin. Let the strained stock cool completely. Remove the fat from the surface. Wipe the top of the stock with a cloth dipped in hot water.

Clarify and finish

  1. Return the stock to a clean stewpan. Add lemon peel and juice. Add whipped egg whites and shells. Add the vinegars. Add salt to taste. Whisk the mixture over heat until it boils.

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. Shallot + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, which lets the stock set into a firm aspic.
Egg whites
Trap cloudy particles as they cook, clarifying the stock to a clear jelly.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the clarifying process.
Vinegars
Add acidity and sharpness that balance the rich, gelatinous stock.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites into the stock and bringing it to a boil. Egg whites must be whisked in and heated so they coagulate and trap impurities; if the stock is stirred too hard or boiled before clarifying, it stays cloudy and loses clarity.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, shallot, thyme, parsley, onion, leek):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, shallot, thyme, parsley, onion, leek. 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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