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Dessert

Aspic De Foie-Gras

Aspic de Foie-Gras is a chilled gelatin dish containing foie gras, truffles, hard‑boiled eggs, and cold poultry, set in consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Aspic De Foie-Gras

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Reduce the consommé to 1 pint by boiling.

  2. Add tarragon and tarragon vinegar, then simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in lemon juice and Madeira wine, cooking for a few minutes.

  4. Mix egg whites with cold water, then skim and strain the mixture through a flannel bag.

Assemble and set

  1. In a round mold with a hole in the center, pour a little jelly in the bottom.

  2. Layer with truffles, hard-boiled eggs, pâté de foie gras, and cold chicken or turkey.

  3. Fill the mold with the remaining jelly and refrigerate until set.

Turn out and serve

  1. Turn out onto a plate and fill the hole with Tartare Sauce.

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. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Truffle + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Madeira wine + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together195 recipes
  5. Tarragon + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together619 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Consommé
Forms the clear savory jelly that sets around the other layers.
Egg whites
Clarify the consommé, collecting impurities so the aspic stays clear.
Pâté de foie gras
Adds rich fat and a smooth, buttery flavor to the layers.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic depth and a touch of sweetness to the jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich jelly.
Truffles
Contribute an earthy aroma and decorative shape to the layers.

The step that matters

Skimming and straining the clarified consommé. Egg whites must be skimmed and strained carefully through a flannel bag; any leftover particles cloud the jelly and spoil its clarity, while the set aspic depends on a clear, well-reduced liquid.

“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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