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Prawn Creams in Aspic

A chilled aspic containing minced prawns, whipped cream, and seasonings, garnished with herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and endive work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 308 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Prawn Creams in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tins

  1. Dip small tins in cold water.

  2. Add a little aspic to each tin with a tiny piece of truffle.

Make the mixture

  1. Hold the basin over hot water to liquefy the aspic jelly.

  2. Mince the prawns.

  3. Mix the minced prawns with about ½ cup liquid aspic.

  4. Add the whipped cream, salt, pepper, and coloring to the mixture.

Set and serve

  1. Pour a little more aspic jelly into the tins before adding the mixture.

  2. Allow the mixture to set firm.

  3. Turn out the aspic and surround with chopped aspic jelly.

  4. Garnish with cress, endive, or parsley.

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. Pepper + endivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together308 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Truffle + endivetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Truffle + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Truffle + peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,106 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns
Provide the main body and flavor of the set filling.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a softer, lighter texture to the filling.
Aspic jelly
Sets the dish into a firm gel that holds its shape when turned out.

The step that matters

Allow the mixture to set firm. Aspic is a gelatin-based jelly that must be cool but still liquid when the filling goes in, then given time to chill fully. If it is too warm the filling sinks or the gel stays soft, and if it is too cold before mixing it can set in lumps and won't hold a clean shape when turned out.

Swap the endive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, pepper, cream):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Endivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, pepper, cream. 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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