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Lobster in Aspic

A molded aspic containing lobster, hard‑boiled eggs, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the hard-boiled eggs.

  2. Chop the parsley.

Layer and set

  1. Line the bottom of small molds with egg slices, parsley, and lobster (or meat).

  2. Pour in a little aspic jelly and let it cool.

  3. Repeat the layering until the molds are full.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + lobstertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Pepper + lobstertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,247 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Egg + lobstertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 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

Hard-boiled eggs
Forms the visible sliced layers that give the finished aspic its pattern.
Lobster
Provides the main meat layer, set firmly within the clear jelly.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that holds the layers together when cooled.

The step that matters

Pour in a little aspic jelly and let it cool. Each layer must be set before the next is added, or the ingredients will shift and mix. Aspic jelly sets as it cools, so pouring too much at once or skipping the cooling time can blur the layers.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, lobster. 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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