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L' Aspic —

A clear gelatinous dish made from boiled fowls, ham, calves' feet, herbs, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

L' Aspic —

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Clean, singe, and wash the fowls thoroughly, then draw their legs inside.

  2. Place the fowls in a small stockpot with the ham and boned calves' feet.

  3. Fill the pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stove.

  4. Skim the surface to clarify.

  5. Add the bay leaf, thyme, basil, parsley, chives, carrots, and onions.

  6. Let it boil slowly for 4 hours.

  7. Strain through a cloth.

Flavour and clarify

  1. Reduce the tarragon vinegar to half with mignonette pepper, cloves, mace, and salt (vinegar is optional).

  2. Pour the clear jelly into the mixture.

  3. Remove the mixture from the heat.

  4. Whip the egg whites with the Madeira or white wine and the blond de veau as needed.

  5. Stir the mixture back on a quick stove until it boils.

  6. Let it simmer for a while.

  7. Strain the mixture again to ensure clarity.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Thyme + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped whites collect impurities as they heat, clearing the jelly to a sparkling finish.
Calves' feet
Their collagen dissolves into the stock and sets it into a firm, wobbly jelly when cooled.
Fowls
Simmered slowly, they release flavour and body into the stock.
Madeira or white wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the rich, savoury stock.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture back on a quick stove until it boils. Egg whites must be heated gradually while stirred so they rise and trap impurities; boiling too vigorously or stirring too late can break the clarification and leave the aspic cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, thyme, basil, parsley, chive, carrot, tarragon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, thyme, basil, parsley, chive, carrot, tarragon. 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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