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Jelly, Aspic

Aspic is a gelatinized meat stock made with stock, vegetables, herbs, gelatin, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Jelly, Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using stock, remove the fat.

  2. Put stock into a saucepan with all ingredients except the egg whites and shells and the sherry.

  3. Stir over heat until the gelatin is dissolved.

Clarify

  1. Whisk the egg whites slightly and add with the crushed shells.

  2. Whisk well until it comes to a boil, then stop whisking and let it boil gently for 10 minutes.

  3. Set aside for a few minutes with the lid partly on.

Strain

  1. Strain through a hot teacloth, putting the sherry through the cloth last.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tarragon + turniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm, jelly-like aspic when chilled.
Egg whites
Gather impurities as they heat, clarifying the stock to a clear result.
Stock
Provides the main liquid and the meaty flavour of the aspic.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the stock.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the rich stock and gelatine.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a mellow, wine-like flavour to the finished aspic.

The step that matters

Boil gently after the egg whites go in. Once the whites are added, whisking stops at the boil so they can form a raft that traps cloudy particles. Vigorous boiling breaks the raft and leaves the aspic cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, vinegar, carrot, tarragon, turnip, celery, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, vinegar, carrot, tarragon, turnip, celery, clove. 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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