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Aspic

Aspic is a savory gelatin made with gelatine, spices, lemon, herbs, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine gelatine, salt, peppercorns, allspice, lemon juice, bay leaf, onion, and herbs.

  2. Add egg whites and pour in warm water and brown vinegar.

  3. Bring to a gentle boil, whisking to mix well.

  4. Once boiling, strain through a warm jelly bag until clear.

  5. If not clear, strain again.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  4. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Egg whites
Bind to fine particles as they heat, collecting sediment so the liquid strains clear.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly when it cools.
Brown vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the egg whites clarify the liquid.

The step that matters

Bring to a gentle boil, whisking to mix well. Egg whites need to heat slowly with the liquid so they coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Boiling too hard or stirring vigorously can break up the foam and leave the aspic cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, lemon, onion, parsley, egg, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, lemon, onion, parsley, egg, vinegar. 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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