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Aspic Jelly

A gelatinized meat stock made with brown stock, water, gelatin, lemon, herbs, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the stock and water in a saucepan.

  2. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft, then add it to the saucepan.

  3. Add the juice of the lemon, bouquet garni, carrot, onion, mace, cloves, salt, and peppercorns.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 5-10 minutes.

Clarify and strain

  1. Remove from heat and let it settle for 5-10 minutes.

  2. Strain through a jelly bag into a clean basin.

  3. If using, add tarragon vinegar before straining.

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. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Clove + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Carrot + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 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

Gelatine
Sets the cooled liquid into a firm, clear jelly.
Brown stock
Provides the main flavour and body of the aspic.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the stock.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, do not boil hard. A hard rolling boil breaks up the settled particles and cloudes the liquid, so the aspic stays cloudy instead of clear. Gentle simmering keeps the stock clear enough to strain well.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, carrot, onion, clove, tarragon, vinegar, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, carrot, onion, clove, tarragon, vinegar, 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.

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