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Aspic Jelly

A gelatin made from veal, ham, calf's foot, and aromatics, set with wine, vinegar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the veal, ham, calf's foot, cloves, onion, carrot, and herbs in 2 quarts of water.

  2. Boil gently until reduced by more than half.

  3. Strain the liquid.

  4. Let the liquid cool, removing all fat and sediment.

Clarify and set

  1. In a saucepan, combine the jelly with white wine, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and egg whites.

  2. Stir until nearly boiling and it becomes white.

  3. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  4. Cover the mixture.

  5. Let it settle.

  6. Strain through a jelly bag 2-3 times until clear.

  7. Pour into a mold soaked in cold water.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. White wine + cidertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot
Adds gelatin, which lets the cooled liquid set into a firm jelly.
Egg whites
Coagulate as the mixture heats, trapping sediment so the aspic can be strained clear.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the jelly.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the jelly.

The step that matters

Stir until nearly boiling. Stirring while the egg whites heat helps them coagulate and collect impurities. If the mixture is allowed to boil hard or is not left to settle, the clarity is lost and the aspic turns cloudy.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, clove, onion, white wine, cider, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, clove, onion, white wine, cider, vinegar. 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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