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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly made with game, truffles, and a stock reduction, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and white wine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 307 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the game

  1. Dip each piece of game into sherry. Let the coating cool. Repeat the dipping process.

  2. Roast 3-4 fowls covered with buttered paper until not browned.

  3. Cut the breasts into thick fillets.

  4. Arrange the fillets in a circle on a dish.

Make the sauce and puree

  1. Boil the bones with mushroom trimmings, herbs, spices, and shallots in white stock until reduced.

  2. Strain the sauce.

  3. Add a little white wine.

  4. Pound the leg meat into a pulp. Pass the pulp through a sieve.

  5. Mix the pulp with enough sauce to make a thick puree.

  6. Add some liquid aspic jelly.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Pour the puree in the center of the fillets.

  2. Cover the fillets with the sauce.

  3. Once cold, decorate with aspic jelly.

  4. Add truffles.

Set the border

  1. Fill a border mold with aspic jelly.

  2. Layer the mold with truffles and game fillets.

  3. Once set, turn out the border.

  4. Place the game pieces inside.

  5. Arrange the pieces on a dish.

  6. Decorate with aspic jelly.

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. Sherry + white winetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear, firm glaze that holds the decoration and gives a smooth finish.
Truffles
Adds a strong earthy aroma and a luxurious visual accent.
Fowl
Provides the main cooked meat, with breasts sliced into fillets and leg meat made into puree.
Strong white stock
Forms the flavour base of the sauce when its bones and trimmings are reduced.
Mushroom trimmings
Contribute earthy depth of flavour to the reduced sauce.
Sherry
Adds a sweet, nutty flavour to the coating on the game pieces.

The step that matters

Reducing the sauce to the right strength. The sauce must be reduced enough to set firmly once chilled. Too little reduction leaves it weak, so the aspic will not hold its shape or give a clear glaze.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, truffle, mushroom, white wine):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, truffle, mushroom, white wine. 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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