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Aspic

Aspic is a chilled meat jelly made from veal, game or fowl, eggs, wine, lemon juice, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Pound the veal and game or fowl in a mortar until fine.

  2. Combine the egg whites, whole eggs, veal, game or fowl, white wine, and a little spring water in a stewpan.

  3. Whisk the mixture until well mixed.

Make the aspic

  1. Heat the mixture over a brisk stove-fire while whisking until the eggs begin to coagulate.

  2. Add the lemon juice mixed with a little spring water.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat.

  4. Cover the stewpan.

  5. Let it simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

  6. Pour the mixture through a flannel jelly-bag to clarify.

  7. Once clarified, pour the aspic into deep pans.

  8. Refrigerate until firm.

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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Veal + white winetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,845 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping solids to clarify the liquid.
Whole eggs
Add to the coagulating mass that clarifies the stock and helps it set.
Veal
Provides gelatin and meaty flavour once pounded and simmered into the liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness that balances the savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Heating while whisking until the eggs begin to coagulate. If the mixture is heated without constant whisking, the egg proteins set in lumps instead of forming a raft that clarifies the liquid. Stopping at the first sign of coagulation keeps the aspic clear.

“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

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