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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a savory gelatin made from vegetables, spices, and vinegar, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and whisk over heat until boiling.

  3. Let simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain through a clean, coarse cloth that has been steeped in hot water.

  5. Return the jelly through the cloth until clear, using a clean hot basin each time.

Set

  1. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  2. Tarragon + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Egg whites and shells
Attract cloudy particles so they can be strained out, clearing the jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the clarified stock.
Malt or french vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps balance the stock.

The step that matters

Returning the jelly through the cloth until clear. Clarity depends on repeated straining through a clean, hot cloth or basin. Cloudy bits left behind stay in the jelly, and a cold basin can cause the gelatine to set early and clog the cloth.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More aspic recipes

Chicken 77Meat 26Tomato 25Jelly 16Lobster 14Beef 10 See all 167 →

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