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Tongue Moulded in Aspic Jelly

A molded dish of boiled tongue slices set in aspic jelly, decorated with hard‑cooked eggs and mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,301 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Tongue Moulded in Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mould

  1. Chill a charlotte mould in ice water and moisten it.

  2. Pour in a little jelly.

  3. Turn the mould until the surface is lightly coated.

Decorate and layer

  1. Decorate the bottom and sides of the mould with the cut egg shapes.

  2. Pour a little jelly over each egg piece to hold them in place.

  3. When the decoration is set, pour in jelly to a depth of ½ inch.

  4. Arrange slices of cold boiled tongue in a circle, overlapping each piece.

  5. Add a few tablespoons of jelly to set the tongue.

  6. When set, pour in more jelly.

  7. Arrange another circle of tongue slices when nearly firm.

  8. Continue layering until the mould is filled.

Set and serve

  1. Chill.

  2. Unmould on a bed of lettuce leaves.

  3. Garnish with cubes of Aspic Jelly and stars of Mayonnaise Dressing.

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. Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Aspic jelly
Sets into a firm, clear body that holds the tongue and eggs in shape.
Boiled tongue
Forms the sliced meat layers that give the molded dish its substance and flavour.
Hard cooked eggs
Provide the decorative pattern and contrast in colour when the mould is turned out.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds richness and creamy flavour as a garnish piped into stars.

The step that matters

Let each layer set before adding the next. Jelly is a gel that firms as it cools. If you pour new jelly onto a layer that is not yet set, the pieces shift and the layers mix, so the pattern is lost. Wait until each layer is nearly firm before pouring the next.

“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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