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Shrimps in Aspic

Shrimps in aspic served in molded portions with lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Shrimps in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the shrimps with salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. Line small molds with aspic jelly.

Layer and set

  1. Decorate the bottom of each mold with hard boiled egg cut into fancy shapes and sprigs of parsley, set with a little aspic.

  2. Add a layer of shrimps and a little more aspic.

  3. Add a layer of yolk of egg rubbed through a sieve.

  4. Repeat layers until molds are full.

Serve

  1. Serve with shredded lettuce.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lettuce + shrimptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Aspic jelly
Sets into a firm, clear jelly that holds the layers together and gives the mold its shape.
Shrimps
Provide the main flavour and the pink, tender seafood layers of the dish.
Hard boiled egg
Adds a firm, mild texture and decorative contrast to the layers.
Lettuce
Adds fresh, crisp texture as a bed for the moulded aspic when served.

The step that matters

Adding the aspic in thin layers. Each layer must be partly set before the next is added, or the shrimps and egg will sink or mix together. Aspic that is too warm or too cold will also make the layers blur or fail to hold their shape.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, parsley, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, parsley, egg, pepper. 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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