Skip to main content
Main

Aspio Op Meat

A gelatinous dish made by cooking various meats and vegetables, then setting the clarified broth with egg whites into a mold.

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

Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Aspio Op Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a stewpan, layer the sliced onions and bacon.

  2. Add the chicken, game, mutton, beef, calf's foot, bacon rind, parsley, thyme, garlic, carrots, clove, and small onions.

  3. Pour in the water and cover the pan. Set on a brisk fire.

  4. Once nearly cooked, ladle off excess grease.

  5. Add boiling water to cover the mixture and finish cooking.

  6. Strain the juice.

  7. Skim off any fat.

  8. Let it cool.

Clarify and set the jelly

  1. If the juice is not clear, beat 2 egg whites and stir them into the juice in the stewpan over a sharp fire for 10 minutes.

  2. Add a few drops of lemon juice.

  3. Strain again.

  4. Pour some of the juice into a mold to a depth of ⅛ inch and place it on ice until it sets into a jelly.

Assemble and unmold

  1. Layer the cooked meats in the jelly, ensuring they do not touch the sides of the mold.

  2. Cover with the remaining juice to match the thickness at the top and bottom.

  3. Refrigerate until fully set.

  4. Dip the mold in warm water.

  5. Turn it out onto a dish.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Calf's foot
Releases gelatin that helps the stock set into a firm jelly.
Egg whites (in the method)
Collect impurities as they cook, clarifying the juice so it turns clear.
Bacon rind
Adds collagen and savory richness that supports the jelly's body and flavor.
Chicken
Contributes gelatin and meaty flavor to the stock and the layered meat.
Onions
Build savory depth and sweetness in the base of the stock.

The step that matters

Clarifying the juice with egg whites. Egg white proteins coagulate as they heat and trap cloudy particles, so the juice must be stirred gently while it rises and then strained carefully. Boiling too hard or skipping the second straining leaves the jelly cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, meat, mutton, beef, parsley, thyme):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, meat, mutton, beef, parsley, thyme. 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 meat aspic recipes

Savory 3 See all 26 →

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipes