Aspic Jelly
The convenience of aspic for use in garnishing and for moulded meat entrees is frequently overlooked, or thought to be too much trouble to undertake. It may be made in half an hour from clear consomme and gelatine, or by simmering a strong solution of extract of beef, with the seasonings that would be used in making the consomme.
Having 2 quarts of clear consomme or 1 quart that will jelly, add a sprig of tarragon and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Simmer together, and if the 2 quarts of thinner consomme are used, boil it down to one-half. Add a tablespoonful of granulated gelatine soaked until soft in 2 tablespoonfuls of cold water, mixing it first with a little of the boiling stock until it is well dissolved. Add or omit half a wineglassful of sherry or madeira wine. Cool and add the slightly beaten whites and crushed shells of 2 eggs, let it simmer five or ten minutes and strain through a jelly-bag until very clean. Pour into moulds that have been wet in cold water, or, if to be used in garnishing, pour into a flat pan, and when cold cut in dice. To make the aspic with extract of beef, dissolve 2 teaspoonfuls of extract in a quart of boiling water. Season with half a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, a few drops of onion juice, salt, and a little cayenne, a blade of mace, and a bay leaf. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. Simmer all together until the seasoning is well blended; add the gelatine and wine as before; clean with the egg, and strain.
A savoury meat jelly for lining moulds, setting cold entrees and cutting into garnish dice. The recipe assumes you either have real gelatinous stock or will fake it with beef extract.
- The hinge: clarify, then never boil againOnce the egg white and shells go in, keep the pot at a bare tremble and do not stir after the raft forms. A rolling boil breaks the raft and you will strain out cloudy jelly no matter how fine the bag.
- Gelatine strengthA tablespoon of granulated gelatine is a little more than one modern 7 g packet, and roughly a packet's worth will set a quart only softly. For jelly firm enough to unmould and slice, use 1 1/2 to 2 packets per quart of liquid; for garnish dice cut from a flat pan, two packets.
- Consomme "that will jelly"Stock made from veal knuckle, calf's foot or pork skin sets on its own when chilled. If your stock stays liquid in the refrigerator, it has no useful gelatine and the added packet is doing all the work — count on the higher figure above.
- Extract of beefThis means a concentrated meat paste of the Bovril or Liebig type, not modern bouillon cubes. Two teaspoons in a quart of water gives thin, salty stock; taste before adding any further salt.
- Kitchen bouquetA dark browning and seasoning sauce, still sold under that name. It is for colour and depth, not salt; half a teaspoon in a quart is enough to turn the jelly a clear amber-brown.
- WineglassfulAbout two fluid ounces, so half a wineglass is about one fluid ounce, two tablespoons. The recipe adds it after the reduction, though the later simmer with the egg whites will still drive off much of the alcohol.
- Jelly-bagA double layer of dampened muslin or a fine cloth set in a sieve does the same job. Let it drip without pressing or squeezing; pressure pushes fines through and clouds the jelly.
- Straining a warm liquidStrain while the aspic is hot enough to run freely. If it starts to set in the cloth, warm it gently to liquid again rather than forcing it through.
- Setting and yieldA quart of finished aspic lines several small moulds or fills a shallow pan about half an inch deep for dice. Chill at least four hours; overnight is safer. Coat moulds by pouring in a little, rolling it over the cold surface, and pouring off the excess.
Aspic belongs to the cold-larder side of nineteenth-century professional cookery, where a clear meat jelly was both a preservative coating and the medium for the elaborate chaud-froid and moulded work that filled buffet tables. The word is generally traced to French aspic, and the connection to the snake of the same name is usually explained by the mottled, glassy look of the finished jelly — a traditional explanation rather than a documented one. What dates this particular entry is its briskness: granulated gelatine sold by the packet and commercial beef extract had, by the turn of the twentieth century, put in half an hour what once demanded a day of boiling calves' feet, and the writer's opening complaint that aspic is "thought to be too much trouble" is really an advertisement for those two industrial conveniences.