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Gefiugel in Aspic — Poultry in Jelly

A dish of cooked poultry pieces set in a gelatinous broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Gefiugel in Aspic — Poultry in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fowl

  1. Cut up the uncooked fowls, leaving the breast on the bone whole.

  2. Place all parts in a stew-pan, including liver, heart, and gizzard.

  3. Cover with cold water and bring to a simmer.

  4. Add cloves, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and lemon slices.

  5. Simmer for 1 hour without boiling fast.

  6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  7. Remove the fowl when cooked enough to part from the bones.

  8. Cut the breast meat into 4 long slices and the other parts into smaller pieces.

Make the aspic

  1. Return the bones to the gravy and add soaked gelatine.

  2. Stew the bones a little longer, then strain the liquid through a napkin.

Assemble and set

  1. Pour a few spoonfuls of jelly into a deep pie dish to congeal.

  2. Slice the hard-boiled egg and arrange the best slice in the center of the dish.

  3. Place the white breast slices on each side of the egg slice.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 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

Fowls
Provide the meat that is cooked tender and set into the jelly.
Gelatine or isinglass
Sets the strained cooking liquid into a firm, sliceable aspic.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds a decorative centrepiece when sliced and arranged in the dish.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling fast. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid clear, which matters for a clear aspic.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, parsley, lemon, pepper, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, parsley, lemon, pepper, 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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