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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a gelatinous dish made from water, sherry, vinegars, lemon, vegetables, peppercorns, salt, egg whites, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large rinsed pan.

  2. Stir over medium heat until the gelatine is dissolved.

  3. Whisk briskly until a good froth forms.

  4. Remove the whisk and allow the jelly to boil vigorously.

  5. Draw it to the side of the heat and let it settle.

  6. Strain through a jelly cloth until clear.

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. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  5. Tarragon + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together463 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

French leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly once cooled.
Egg whites and shells
Attract impurities as they coagulate, clarifying the jelly for a clear result.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a mellow, sweet-dry flavour to the jelly.
Mixed vinegars
Add acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the jelly.
Lemon rind and juice
Add acidity and aromatic oils that lift the flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Draw it to the side of the heat and let it settle. Boiling vigorously after the egg whites have formed a froth is needed to coagulate them, but the jelly must then sit undisturbed off the heat so the egg-white raft traps impurities. Stirring or jostling it would cloud the final jelly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, vinegar, malt, tarragon, lemon, carrot, celery):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, vinegar, malt, tarragon, lemon, carrot, celery. 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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