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Another Aspic Jelly

A clear gelatin aspic made with water, gelatin, vinegar, tarragon vinegar, peppercorns, saffron, lemon juice, shallot, bay leaves, egg whites, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and shallot 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 ↓

Another Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the stock

  1. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and stir with a whisk until nearly boiling and gelatine dissolves.

  3. Whisk quickly to form a scum, then let it boil until it rises to the top (do not let it boil over).

  4. Let it stand for 15 minutes with the lid nearly on.

Strain and set

  1. Strain through a boiled cloth three times, pouring a little each time and returning it to the saucepan.

  2. Pour the mixture into a wet mold.

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. Tarragon + shallottop 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. Saffron + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Tarragon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Dissolves in the hot liquid and sets it into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Egg whites and shells
Bind to impurities as they heat, forming a scum that clarifies the liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the egg whites clarify the liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and fresh citrus flavour to the clear liquid.

The step that matters

Whisk quickly to form a scum, then let it boil until it rises to the top (do not let it boil over).. Egg whites coagulate around impurities as they heat, trapping them in a scum that clarifies the liquid. Boiling over would disturb the scum and leave the aspic cloudy.

Swap the saffron

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, tarragon, lemon, shallot, 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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