Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Aspic Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the aspic
In a pot, combine the onion, celery seed, bay leaf, garlic, parsley, and stock or cold water.
Bring to a boil.
Add the beef extract if using.
Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of cold water for 15 minutes, then add it to the pot.
Strain the mixture and pour it into a mold.
Set
Refrigerate until set.
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.
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,668 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly gel as it cools.
- Stock
- Provides the liquid base and savory flavor that the gelatine sets.
The step that matters
Soaking the gelatine before adding it. Gelatine must hydrate in cold water first so it dissolves evenly into the hot liquid. Added dry or clumped, it forms lumps and sets unevenly.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, garlic, parsley, beef):
- Thymefits better
- Cuminfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, garlic, parsley, beef. 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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