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Aspic Jelly

A savory gelatin made from carrot, onion, parsley, celery leaves, lemon rind, cloves, pepper berries, vinegar, lemon juice, white stock, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and cook the carrot, onion, parsley, celery leaves, and lemon rind for 5 minutes without browning.

  2. Add the cloves, pepper berries, vinegar, lemon juice, and white stock. Simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture, then add salt and cayenne to taste. Let it cool.

Clear and set

  1. Remove any fat from the surface, then add the beaten egg white and crushed shells. Mix thoroughly.

  2. Gradually heat the mixture to boiling, stirring constantly, and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, add 4 cups of cold water, and let it stand for 5 minutes before straining through a cotton cloth over a strainer.

  4. Soften the gelatine in the cold water, then reheat the cleared liquid and pour it over the softened gelatine. Strain again, and it is ready for use.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cooled liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly.
White stock
Forms the liquid base that becomes the jelly.
Egg white and crushed egg shells
Bind cloudy particles so the finished liquid runs clear.
Carrot
Adds body, mild sweetness and colour to the stock.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the rich stock.

The step that matters

Clearing the stock with egg white and shells. The egg white coagulates as it heats and traps cloudy particles into a raft. Stirring hard or boiling too vigorously can break the raft and leave the liquid cloudy, so heat gently and strain carefully through cloth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, vinegar, lemon, parsley, celery, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, vinegar, lemon, parsley, celery, pepper, butter. 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.

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