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Croutons of Aspic Jelly

Croutons made from aspic jelly, prepared by frying stale bread in butter after setting the aspic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Croutons of Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the stock

  1. Whisk the egg whites and shells in the jelly over a brisk fire until the eggs begin to coagulate.

  2. Pour in the lemon juice mixed with cold water and strained.

  3. Cover the stewpan and simmer for a short time.

  4. Strain through a jelly bag and fill a garnishing mold or pour into a shallow dish.

Prepare the aspic

  1. When cold, cut into shapes for garnish.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the white stock, shallots, bay leaf, fine herbs, and gelatine.

  3. Heat and stir until the gelatine dissolves.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Finish the aspic

  1. Whip the egg whites and mix with ½ pint cold water and Maille vinegar.

  2. Thoroughly mix this with the jelly.

  3. Bring to a boil and maintain for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain through a jelly bag or napkin.

  5. Pour into a border mold or shallow dish to cool.

Make the croutons

  1. For croutons, cut stale bread into desired shapes and fry in heated butter until golden brown.

  2. Drain on paper and serve as desired.

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 + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Shallot + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, 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 clarifies.
Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm, sliceable jelly when cooled.
White stock
Provides the savory liquid base that gives the aspic its flavor.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that supports the egg white clarification and brightens the flavor.
Butter
Fat for frying the bread, promoting golden browning and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites over brisk heat. Whites must only begin to coagulate, forming a raft that traps cloudy particles. Stirring too late or too hard breaks the raft, leaving the strained aspic cloudy.

“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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