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Aspic De Crevettes

Aspic de Crevettes is a chilled shrimp aspic made with fish stock, gelatin, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Aspic De Crevettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Prepare 1 quart of well-seasoned fish stock using delicate sea fish.

  2. Boil the fish stock with bay leaf, spices, celery leaves, parsley, thyme, onion, peppercorns, and salt.

  3. Clear the broth and strain it through fine muslin.

  4. Add a little white wine or Madeira to the strained broth.

Set the mold

  1. Rinse a round, smooth mold in cold water.

  2. Pour fish jelly into the mold to a depth of 1 inch and set aside to harden.

  3. Arrange boiled and chilled vegetables in the jelly, dipping each in the liquid jelly for better placement.

  4. Pour more jelly over the vegetables to cover and set again to harden (on ice is quickest).

  5. Fill the rest of the mold with boiled and chilled shelled shrimp, pouring jelly over until filled.

  6. Set aside to harden.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with crumbed jelly, parsley, and lemon, alongside Sauce Emmanuel.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  3. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish stock
Forms the savoury base that the gelatin sets into the aspic.
Gelatin
Sets the clear stock into a firm jelly that holds the vegetables and shrimp in place.
Shelled fresh shrimp
Provides the main protein and sweet, delicate seafood flavour suspended in the jelly.
Vegetables
Add colour, texture and contrast to the jelly.

The step that matters

Clearing and straining the broth. Gelatin sets clear only if the stock is free of particles and fat. Simmering gently and straining through fine muslin removes cloudiness, so the finished aspic looks bright and clean.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, celery, parsley, thyme, onion, gelatin, white wine):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, celery, parsley, thyme, onion, gelatin, 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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