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Aspic Jelly From Gelatine

A gelatin aspic made with egg whites, lemon, vinegar, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 From Gelatine

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

  2. Whip the egg whites slightly, then add the lemon rind and juice.

  3. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

Cook and strain

  1. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain carefully through a thin cloth or jelly bag.

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. Lemon + tarragontop 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

Leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly once cooled.
Egg whites and shells
Bind impurities and cloud particles, which clarifies the stock as it simmers.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the stock clarify.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma, and its juice helps the egg whites clarify the liquid.

The step that matters

Strain carefully through a thin cloth or jelly bag. Disturbing the clarifying egg-white raft lets cloudy particles pass through, leaving the aspic murky. Straining slowly and without squeezing keeps the jelly clear and bright.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, malt, vinegar, tarragon, 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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