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Aspic Jelly From Gelatine

Aspic jelly made with gelatin, water, egg whites, lemon, vinegar, onion, carrot, celery, bouquet garni, peppercorns, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Aspic Jelly From Gelatine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and clarify

  1. Whip the egg whites slightly.

  2. Pare the lemon rind as thinly as possible and strain the juice.

  3. Combine all ingredients in a stewpan.

Simmer and strain

  1. Whisk over medium heat until boiling, then simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

  2. Strain carefully through a thin cloth or jelly bag.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  5. Tarragon + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together463 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, clear jelly as it cools.
Egg whites and shells
Bind to fine particles and rise to the top, clarifying the liquid into a clear stock.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a distinct aromatic tarragon note.
Lemon
Adds acidity and fresh citrus aroma to the clear liquid.

The step that matters

Strain carefully through a thin cloth or jelly bag. Clarified aspic is only clear if the egg-white raft is left undisturbed and the liquid is not forced through. Pushing or squeezing the bag lets cloudy particles pass into the jelly, leaving it murky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, malt, vinegar, tarragon, carrot, celery):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, malt, vinegar, tarragon, carrot, celery. 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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