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Aspic, or Clear Savoitrt-obllt

A clear savoury jelly made by boiling calf's feet, veal and ham, then clarifying the stock with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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, or Clear Savoitrt-obllt

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

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

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool completely, removing all fat and sediment.

Clarify the jelly

  1. Place the jelly in a clean saucepan and stir in the beaten egg whites until nearly boiling.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then let it settle and pour through a jelly bag until clear.

  3. When it begins to boil, add mace, white peppercorns, and salt to taste.

Serve

  1. For serving, add tarragon vinegar for flavor if desired.

  2. Mold with slices of boiled tongue or carved fowl.

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 that lets the cooled liquid set into a firm jelly.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin and body, helping the stock set firmly when chilled.
Egg whites
Coagulate during heating and trap sediment, clearing the stock into a transparent jelly.
Lean ham
Contributes savoury, meaty flavour to the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the stock as they cook down.

The step that matters

Clarifying with egg whites. Egg whites must be stirred in and heated gently until they form a raft that traps cloudy particles. Vigorous boiling or disturbing the raft breaks it up, leaving the aspic 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.