Skip to main content
Main

Veal or Chicken in Aspic

A chilled aspic made with veal or chicken, gelatin, herbs, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Veal or Chicken in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the veal

  1. Cut the veal into strips about 2 inches thick.

  2. Place the meat in a stew pan with salt and 1 pint of hot water.

  3. Simmer until tender.

Set the aspic

  1. Lift the meat into a mold or an oblong deep pan.

  2. Return the saucepan to the heat.

  3. Add lemon juice and gelatin.

  4. Strain the mixture over the meat.

  5. Chill until set and serve cold.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 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

Veal
Provides the meat that is cooked tender and set in the aspic.
Gelatine
Sets the cooking liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly when chilled.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture over the meat. Gelatine only sets properly when it is fully dissolved in hot liquid. Straining removes particles and fat that would cloud the jelly or stop it setting clear and firm.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, clove, allspice, mace):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Limefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, clove, allspice, mace. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes