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Aspic

Aspic is a gelatinous dish made from calf's feet, veal, ham, onions, carrots, herbs, and spices, set with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the calf's feet, veal, ham, onions, carrots, and herbs in water until reduced by more than half.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Let it cool completely, removing any fat and sediment.

Clarify and season

  1. Put the jelly into a clean saucepan.

  2. Add the beaten egg whites.

  3. Stir the mixture until nearly boiling.

  4. Simmer by the fire for 15 minutes.

  5. Let it settle.

  6. Pour through a jelly bag until clear.

  7. Wait until it begins to boil.

  8. Add mace, white peppercorns, and salt to taste.

  9. Optionally, flavor with tarragon vinegar when clarified.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Release gelatin, which lets the stock set into a firm jelly when cool.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping cloudy particles so the stock becomes clear.
Veal knuckle
Adds body and gelatin-rich richness to the stock as it reduces.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma to the simmered stock.

The step that matters

Stir until nearly boiling, then simmer gently. Egg whites must be stirred in while the liquid heats so they coagulate and collect impurities. Boiling hard breaks up the coagulated raft, leaving the jelly cloudy instead of clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, carrot, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, carrot, egg. 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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