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Aspic, or Clear Savoury-jelly

Aspic made from calf's feet, veal knuckle, ham, onions, carrots, herbs, and water, clarified with egg whites and seasoned with white peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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, or Clear Savoury-jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

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

  2. Strain the mixture when perfectly cold, removing all fat and sediment.

Clarify

  1. Put the clear liquid into a clean saucepan and add the beaten egg whites.

  2. Heat gently until it begins to boil.

  3. Place it on the fire for 15 minutes to settle.

  4. Pour through a fine sieve to clarify.

  5. When it first begins to boil, add the white peppercorns and adjust seasoning.

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

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

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

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

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Release gelatin into the liquid, giving the aspic its characteristic set when chilled.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping suspended particles so the liquid becomes clear.
Veal knuckle
Adds body and savory flavor, and contributes gelatin to the stock.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites and heating gently. Egg whites must be mixed in before heating and the liquid heated gently; if it boils hard or is stirred too much, the whites break up and cloud the aspic instead of clarifying it.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

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

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