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Eggs in Aspic
Take three cups of canned bouillon, heat, and add to it two tablespoonfuls of granulated gelatin that has been softened in half a cup of cold water.
When gelatin is dissolved, pour a layer of jelly IOI into a wet mold; when it stiffens arrange on it a layer of sliced hard-boiled egg. Cover with more gelatin mixture, another layer of egg, and so on until the mold is filled. Serve surrounded with shredded celery, garnished with mayonnaise and radish roses.
A layered savory jelly that stands or falls on temperature control: each layer must set before the next goes on, and each addition must be cool enough not to melt what is underneath.
- The stray "IOI"That is a page number caught by the scanner mid-sentence, not an instruction or a quantity. Read it as "pour a layer of jelly into a wet mold."
- Gelatin quantityTwo tablespoons of granulated gelatin is roughly two and a half to three standard quarter-ounce envelopes. Against 3 cups bouillon plus 1/2 cup soaking water, that gives a firm jelly that will unmold cleanly and hold slices — softer than that and the layers slump.
- Canned bouillonRead this as ready-to-serve broth rather than a concentrate. Use plain canned or boxed beef broth at drinking strength; if you use a cube or paste, mix it to normal soup strength or the aspic will be too salty.
- ClarityThe dish is meant to be translucent. Skim any fat from the broth and, if it is cloudy, strain it through a coffee filter before adding the gelatin. Boiling gelatin does not help it dissolve and does dull the set — heat the broth to just steaming.
- Working the layersChill each layer until tacky-firm, about 20 to 30 minutes in the refrigerator, then spoon the next portion of gelatin over the eggs after it has cooled to room temperature. Warm liquid poured onto a set layer will melt it and the egg slices will drift.
- Keep the remaining gelatin liquidThe bulk of the mixture sits out while you build. If it starts to set in the bowl, warm it briefly over a pan of hot water and let it cool again rather than pouring it hot.
- A wet moldRinsing the mold with cold water, as directed, is what lets the aspic release. To unmold, dip the outside in warm water for a count of five to ten and invert onto a chilled plate.
- Yield and holdingThe mixture makes about 3 1/2 cups of jelly, layered with as much sliced hard-boiled egg as the mold will take; it serves four to six as a lunch salad. Total chilling from start to finish is four hours or more, so make it the day before. Keep it refrigerated until the moment it is served -- an egg-and-broth jelly is a good medium for bacteria once it warms.
- Radish rosesCut petals into a trimmed radish with a paring knife and drop it into ice water for half an hour; the cuts spring open. Do the same with the shredded celery to make it curl.
Aspic was one of the great show-off techniques of classical French cookery, where clarified stock set with calf's-foot or isinglass turned cold food into architecture. What made it a home dish in America was the arrival of packaged granulated gelatin in the late nineteenth century and the household refrigerator in the early twentieth -- together they put a reliable jelly within reach of a cook with no stockpot and no ice house. That is exactly the spirit of a book called Cook and Be Cool: canned bouillon and a box of gelatin, a mold assembled in stages in the icebox, and a finished dish that comes to the table cold, sliceable, and looking like a great deal more work than it was. Eggs in aspic also suited summer cooking, since hard-boiled eggs were cheap and kept well.