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Aspic Jelly

Aspic jelly made from water, gelatin, onion, carrot, celery, turnip, bouquet garni, egg whites and shells, peppercorns, vinegars, sherry, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. In a large clean stewpan, combine water and gelatine.

  2. Add the onion, vegetables, bouquet garni, egg whites and shells, vinegars, peppercorns, sherry, and salt.

  3. Heat the mixture, whisking until very hot but do not let it boil.

  4. Remove from heat and let it stand for 20 minutes.

Strain and decorate

  1. Strain through a kitchen cloth; for a clearer jelly, strain twice.

  2. To decorate, add lobster coral, hard-boiled eggs, and small pieces of watercress or endive.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + tarragontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Egg whites and shells
Coagulate as the liquid heats, trapping particles so the jelly can be clarified.
Sherry
Adds depth and a warm, aromatic flavour to the jelly.
Plain vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the gelatine.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a distinct herbal aroma to the jelly.

The step that matters

Heat without boiling. Heating gently and whisking until very hot lets the egg whites coagulate and collect impurities. Boiling breaks up this raft, clouding the jelly and letting particles pass through the strainer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More aspic recipes

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

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