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Aspic, or Savoury Jelly

A savory jelly made from herbs, vinegar, chicken stock, egg whites, and clarified with isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Aspic, or Savoury Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil burnet, chervil, and tarragon in white vinegar until aromatic.

  2. Pour the reduced chicken stock into a stewpan.

  3. Beat egg whites in an earthen pan.

  4. Add the aspic mixture to the beaten egg whites.

Clarify

  1. Place the stewpan on the fire.

  2. Stir until the jelly becomes white and nearly boils.

  3. Cover the stewpan and place red embers on top.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the jelly through a napkin or jelly-bag until perfectly transparent.

  2. Use strong brown stock, tarragon vinegar, isinglass, egg whites, salt, and pepper for decorations.

  3. Whisk the mixture on the fire until it nearly curdles.

  4. Cover and clarify with red embers.

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. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chervil + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together867 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Chervil + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 clears.
Chicken stock
Forms the body of the jelly and carries its savoury flavour.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like agent that helps the stock set into a firm jelly.
White vinegar
Its acidity draws out the flavour and aroma of the herbs.
Tarragon
Adds its distinctive aromatic flavour to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Keep the jelly below a rolling boil. The egg whites must form a raft that traps cloudiness as they set. Boiling hard or whisking too vigorously breaks the raft apart, so the jelly stays cloudy and will not strain clear.

Swap the chervil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tarragon, vinegar, chicken, egg, pepper):

  1. Chervilthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against tarragon, vinegar, chicken, 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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