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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a clarified meat stock set with egg whites and flavored with tarragon and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Break the beef into small pieces and wash the meat well.

  2. Place the beef, calves' feet, veal, carrots, onions, parsley, and water in a large stewpan.

  3. Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, skimming off fat as needed.

  4. Remove the pot from heat and let it stand for a few minutes.

  5. Strain the liquid through a colander and a clean cloth.

  6. Let the liquid cool.

  7. Remove all fat and grease.

Clarify and flavor

  1. Whisk the egg whites in a pint of water.

  2. Warm the jelly.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the warm jelly.

  4. Allow the mixture to boil for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag.

  6. Warm the jelly again.

  7. Flavor the jelly with tarragon and lemon juice.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Carrot + tarragontop 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

Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping cloudy particles so the jelly becomes clear.
Calves' feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock its setting power.
Shin of beef
Adds deep meaty flavor and body to the stock as it simmers.
Knuckle of veal
Contributes gelatin and savory flavor to the stock.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the flavor of the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg whites into the warm jelly and boiling. Egg whites must be stirred in evenly and allowed to coagulate fully during boiling, which lifts impurities. Boiling too vigorously before they set, or skipping the straining afterward, leaves the aspic cloudy and less clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, parsley, egg, tarragon, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, parsley, egg, tarragon, lemon. 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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