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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly is a gelatinous dish made from stock, gelatin, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in ½ pint of stock for 1–2 hours.

  2. Beat the whites and shells of the eggs with ½ cup of cold water, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, and salt.

Clarify

  1. Combine this mixture with the other ingredients in an enamelled stewpan.

  2. Whisk over heat until it boils.

  3. Reduce heat and let it stand for 20 minutes until a thick scum forms.

Strain

  1. Strain through a jelly bag or table napkin until clear.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Clove + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm, clear jelly as it cools.
Egg whites and shells
Bind to impurities as they heat, forming a raft that clarifies the stock.
Stock
Forms the main liquid that becomes the jelly.
Shallots
Add aromatic flavour to the stock during clarification.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Reduce heat and let it stand for 20 minutes. The mixture must stay below a rolling boil. Vigorous boiling breaks up the egg raft, so impurities return to the liquid and the aspic turns cloudy instead of clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, shallot, clove, egg, tarragon, vinegar, lemon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, shallot, clove, egg, tarragon, vinegar, lemon. 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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