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Aspic Jelly

A gelatinous broth made from boiled calves' feet, vegetables, herbs, and vinegars, thickened with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Chop the calves' feet into eight pieces and wash them well in cold water.

  2. Place the pieces in a stewpan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil to blanch them.

  3. Pour off the water, wash again, and wash the stewpan.

Make the stock

  1. Return the feet to the stewpan, add 2 quarts of water, and bring to a boil, skimming occasionally.

  2. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and all other ingredients except the lemon, egg whites, and vinegars.

  3. Wash, scrape, and peel the vegetables before use.

  4. Let the mixture boil gently for 5 hours.

  5. Strain through a fine sieve into a basin and let cool completely.

Clarify and finish

  1. Skim off the fat and wipe the surface with a cloth dipped in hot water.

  2. Return the liquid to a clean stewpan, add the lemon peel and juice, whipped egg whites, shells, vinegars, and salt to taste.

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. Shallot + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Their collagen breaks down into gelatin, which sets the cooled liquid into a jelly.
Egg whites
Their proteins set during heating and trap cloudy particles, clarifying the liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that balance the rich, savoury stock.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright citrus aroma.
Sherry
Adds depth and a mellow, fortified sweetness to the flavour.

The step that matters

Clarifying with egg whites. The whipped whites must be added to the cooled, strained liquid before heating. As the liquid warms, the egg proteins coagulate and trap the cloudy particles, which can then be strained away to leave a clear aspic.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, shallot, thyme, parsley, onion, leek):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, shallot, thyme, parsley, onion, leek. 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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