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Chicken Stock for Aspic Jelly
Put a four-pound fowl and a few bits of veal from the neck over the fire in three pints of cold water. Heat slowly to the boiling-point, let boil five minutes, then skim and let simmer until the fowl is nearly tender. Now add an onion and half a sliced carrot, a stalk of celery, a teaspoonful of sweet herbs tied in a bag with a sprig of parsley, two cloves, a blade of mace, eight peppercorns and a teaspoonful of salt. Remove the fowl when tender, and let the stock simmer until reduced to about one quart; strain, and set aside to become cool.
A foundation stock rather than a finished dish: the point is a clear liquid with enough natural gelatin to set, or nearly set, on its own. Everything below serves clarity and body.
- The hinge: never let it boilAfter the initial five-minute boil and skim, the pot should barely tremble — a bubble breaking every few seconds. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and fine protein into the liquid and you will never get a transparent aspic out of it.
- "A four-pound fowl"A fowl meant an older laying hen, tougher and far richer in collagen than a modern broiler. A 4 lb roasting chicken works, but for setting power add a pound of wings, feet or backs; chicken feet are the cheapest fix and are sold at most Asian and Latin markets.
- Veal from the neckThis is there purely for gelatin and neutral body. Veal neck is a special-order item now; a split veal or beef knuckle bone, or simply more chicken feet, does the same work.
- Blade of maceMace is the lacy aril around the nutmeg seed, and a blade is one whole piece — equivalents vary, but reckon roughly 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground, though ground mace clouds the stock slightly. Whole blades are sold by spice merchants and keep well.
- Sweet herbsPeriod shorthand for the mild kitchen herbs: thyme, marjoram, savory, a bay leaf. A teaspoonful of dried mixed herbs tied in cheesecloth with the parsley is faithful to the intent.
- Vegetables go in late for a reasonVegetables go in late -- The recipe adds them only after the fowl is nearly tender. It gives no reason; the usual rationale offered is that their flavor stays fresher and they do not break down and cloud the pot.
- Timing and reductionReckon on perhaps 1 to 1 1/2 hours before a modern roasting chicken is tender; a true fowl, an old hen, will take considerably longer. Then continue simmering to bring three pints down to one quart, uncovered or with the lid ajar. Pull the fowl the moment it is done and use the meat for salad or sandwiches.
- Yield and finishingOne quart, which will dress about a quart of aspic. Chill overnight and lift off the fat cap; if the cold stock sets to a firm jelly on its own it needs no gelatin, and if it is merely syrupy allow about a tablespoon of powdered gelatin per pint.
- SaltA teaspoonful in three pints is light, and deliberately so — the liquid loses a third of its volume afterward. Season the aspic, not the stock.
Aspic was the mark of a competent late-Victorian and Edwardian kitchen: cold moulded work — jellied chicken, moulded salads, glazed cutlets — depended on a stock that would set clean and clear without help. Commercial powdered gelatin was available by this period, but a stock built on fowl and veal bones was still considered the honest route, since gelatin borrowed flavor from nothing and long boiling of collagen-rich joints supplied both body and taste at once. The instruction to start in cold water, boil briefly, then skim before anything else goes in is the classic French method for clarity, and the prominence of such directions shows how central cold, moulded, jellied presentations were to the fashionable luncheon table.