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Aspic Jelly

Aspic is a savory gelatin made from boiled vegetables, wine, and seasonings, set with gelatin and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Put vegetables, seasonings, and ⅓ cup wine in a saucepan.

  2. Cook for 8 minutes.

  3. Strain, reserving the liquid.

Make the aspic

  1. Add gelatin to the stock.

  2. Add lemon juice.

  3. Heat to boiling.

  4. Add the strained liquid.

  5. Season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  6. Beat egg whites slightly.

  7. Add ⅓ cup wine.

  8. Dilute with 1 cup of the hot mixture.

  9. Slowly add to the remaining mixture, stirring constantly until boiling point is reached.

Clear and strain

  1. Place on the back of the range and let stand for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain through double cheese cloth over a fine wire strainer or through a jelly bag.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly gel as it cools.
Egg whites
Trap cloudy particles as they cook, so the finished liquid comes out clear.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness that balances the savoury flavours.
Vegetables
Give the stock its base flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the egg white mixture to the hot liquid. Egg whites coagulate as they heat and trap fine particles that cloud the liquid. Stirring constantly while the mixture heats keeps the whites dispersed and evenly cooked, so they clarify the aspic rather than scrambling into lumps.

“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.

More aspic recipes

Chicken 77Meat 26Tomato 25Jelly 16Lobster 14Beef 10 See all 167 →

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