Skip to main content
Main

Aspic Jelly, Economical

A gelatinous savory dish made from boiled vegetables, herbs, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly, Economical

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. In a stewpan, combine gelatine, water, onion, carrot, turnip, herbs, mace, cloves, peppercorns, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

  2. Heat the mixture until warm, then whisk in the whites of the eggs.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover partially for a few minutes.

Clarify and finish

  1. Strain through a cloth wrung out in hot water.

  2. If using for chopping, reduce the amount of gelatine.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sheet gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly when chilled.
Egg whites and shells
Bind to impurities and rise with them, clarifying the liquid so it looks clear.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the clear stock.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and freshness to balance the savoury stock.

The step that matters

Whisking in the egg whites before boiling. Egg whites must be evenly mixed in while the liquid is warm, then brought slowly to a boil. The proteins coagulate and collect impurities into a raft, which clarifies the aspic. Boiling too hard or stirring after the raft forms can break it up and leave the jelly cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, turnip, clove, lemon, egg, vinegar):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, clove, lemon, egg, vinegar. 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.

More aspic recipes

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

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipes