Skip to main content
Main

Aspic, Ob Clear Savoury-jelly

A clear savory aspic made from calf's feet, veal knuckle, lean ham, onions, carrots, herbs, and clarified with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Aspic, Ob Clear Savoury-jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Boil calf's feet, veal, ham, onions, carrots, and herbs in water until reduced by more than half.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool completely, then remove all fat and sediment.

  3. Put the jelly into a clean saucepan and add beaten egg whites; stir until nearly boiling.

  4. Simmer for 15 minutes, then let it settle and pour through a jelly bag until clear.

Season and mold

  1. When it begins to boil, add mace, white peppercorns, and salt to taste.

  2. For flavor, consider adding tarragon vinegar after clarifying.

  3. To mold, layer boiled tongue or carved fowl in the jelly, adding a pinch of isinglass if desired.

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

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

  2. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Their natural gelatin is what makes the stock set into a firm jelly.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin and a rich, meaty body to the stock.
Egg whites
As they coagulate, they trap sediment and cloudiness, leaving the jelly clear.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock as it simmers.
Onions
Caramelized sweetness and savory depth develop as they cook down in the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color to the stock.

The step that matters

Clarifying the jelly with egg whites. Stir the whites in only until the liquid is nearly boiling, then simmer gently. As the whites coagulate they trap sediment and cloudiness and form a raft. Boiling hard breaks up the raft and leaves the jelly cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, carrot, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, carrot, egg. 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.

More savory aspic recipes

Clear 9 See all 5 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes