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Aspic of Oysters

A chilled aspic made with poached oysters, white wine, lemon juice, and aspic jelly, served with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Aspic of Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Poach and season

  1. Put the oysters in a stewpan with white wine and poach them.

  2. Drain, remove gills from oysters, and place them in a bowl.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and lemon juice.

Set the aspic

  1. Prepare a mould surrounded by pounded ice and mask the bottom with a layer of aspic.

  2. Place some oysters on the aspic layer and cover with more aspic, alternating until the mould is filled.

  3. After an hour, dip the mould in warm water and turn the aspic onto a cold dish.

  4. Surround with chopped aspic-jelly or croûtons and serve with mayonnaise.

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. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Oyster + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together518 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Oyster + lemontop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,942 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Are the main ingredient, poached briefly and set whole in the clear aspic.
Aspic jelly
Gelatin-based setting agent that holds the oysters in a firm, sliceable mould.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the poaching liquid, flavouring the oysters.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the raw-tasting shellfish.

The step that matters

Dip the mould briefly in warm water. Gelatin sets firmly, so a brief warm dip loosens only the outer layer of aspic from the mould wall. Too long a dip melts the surface and can blur or break the shape when turned out.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Grapefits about as well
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, 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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