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Prawns in Aspic
Prepare some ASPIC JELLY; take some shelled prawns; fill some dariole moulds with cold water, empty them, put a little aspic jelly at the bottom of each; when partly set put in one or two prawns, and fill up with the jelly. When set, turn them out on a dish, put a little cress round, and serve.
A two-ingredient assembly that depends entirely on the quality of the aspic and on the discipline of setting it in stages. Everything here hinges on temperature control.
- Set it in layers, not all at onceThe instruction to let the base layer partly set before adding the prawns is the whole technique. Add the prawns to liquid jelly and they will drift out of position before it sets; let the base firm to the consistency of raw egg white and they stay suspended where you put them.
- Dariole mouldsSmall cylindrical metal moulds of roughly 2 1/2 to 3 fl oz (75-90 ml). Individual ramekins, teacups or a silicone muffin tray all work; the recipe specifies no quantity, but a pint of aspic would fill six to eight moulds of that size.
- Why rinse the mouldsFilling with cold water and emptying leaves a film of moisture on the metal, which helps the set jelly release cleanly. Do not dry them afterwards, and do not oil them, which clouds the surface.
- The aspic itselfCassell's assumes you have made a clarified savoury jelly from stock and gelatine, cross-referenced elsewhere in the book. A modern equivalent is well-flavoured fish or light chicken stock set with about 1/2 oz (15 g) powdered gelatine per pint (570 ml) - firm enough to unmould and hold a clean edge. Commercial aspic powder works but tastes flat; season the stock more highly than seems right, as chilling mutes flavour.
- PrawnsCooked and peeled, cold, and patted dry. Anything wet dilutes the jelly at the point of contact and creates a cloudy halo. Small cold-water prawns suit a dariole better than large tiger prawns, which are hard to fit without touching the mould wall.
- Chilling timesThe base layer needs about 15-20 minutes in the fridge; the filled moulds need 3-4 hours, or overnight. Do not use the freezer - ice crystals wreck the clarity and the jelly weeps when it thaws.
- UnmouldingDip the mould to the rim in hot water for three or four seconds, no longer, then invert onto a chilled plate. A quick dip melts a skin; a long one melts the shoulders of the shape.
- ServingOne or two per person as a first course or a cold buffet item. The cress is not decoration alone - its pepperiness offsets the sweetness of the prawn and the blandness of the jelly. Serve within a few hours of unmoulding, as the surface dulls and dries in the fridge.
Aspic work of this kind was the backbone of the Victorian and Edwardian cold table, where the point of a dish was as much its appearance as its taste. Clarified jelly gave a cook a way to present delicate cold food glossy, sealed and unspoiled through a long buffet service, and the dariole mould - a small cylinder generally traced to French pastry, where it is said to have held custard tartlets - was standard equipment in any well-stocked kitchen. Prawns were an obvious choice, being plentiful and sold ready-boiled around the British coast, and their pink shows well through a pale jelly. The whole genre fell out of favour in the later twentieth century, when savoury gelatine came to seem institutional, though the technique itself is sound and has never quite left professional kitchens.