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Lobster in Aspic

A chilled aspic dish with lobster, hard‑boiled eggs, salad, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil 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 ↓

Lobster in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Line a decorative mold or several small dariole molds with aspic jelly.

  2. Decorate with chopped white and yolk of hard-boiled eggs, parsley, tarragon, chervil, and fancifully cut red chili leaves.

  3. Sprinkle lobster coral over the decoration.

  4. Once set, add another thin layer of aspic jelly.

Fill and set

  1. Cut the lobster meat into small dice and fill the mold with alternating layers of lobster, aspic, salad, and slices of hard-boiled egg.

  2. Allow each layer to set, finishing with a layer of aspic.

  3. Chill in the refrigerator or a cool place.

Serve

  1. To serve, unmold onto a cold silver-plated dish and fill the center with a tasty salad.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Lobster + cherviltop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + tarragontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main meat, with coral adding color and a rich seafood flavor.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that holds the layers together and gives the dish its structure.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm texture and contrast in the layers and decoration.

The step that matters

Allow each layer to set. Aspic is a gelatin-based jelly that only firms when cool. If a layer is poured before the one below has set, the layers will blur together and the unmolded aspic will not hold its shape.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg, tarragon, chervil):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, tarragon, chervil. 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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