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Recipe
To one quart of highly seasoned stock, freed from all fat, add the juice of a lemon, a bay leaf, half a cup of wine and one box of gelatine soaked in a cup of cold water. Beat into the mixture the slightly beaten whites and crushed shells of two eggs. Heat to the boiling-point, stirring constantly, and let boil five minutes. After standing ten minutes skim off the froth, etc., and strain through a cheese-cloth folded double and held in a colander.
This is an aspic jelly — clarified savoury stock set with gelatine — the base for moulded salads and for glazing cold meats and fish. The whole point is clarity, and that depends on how you treat the egg raft.
- The hinge: stop stirringThe recipe says to stir constantly through a five-minute boil, but standard clarification practice runs the other way: stir while the mixture heats so the gelatine dissolves and the egg whites circulate, then, once the froth gathers into a raft, stop and let it barely simmer. Stirring a formed raft breaks it up and clouds the jelly, and straining will only partly recover the clarity.
- "One box of gelatine"Genuinely ambiguous: box sizes varied, and sheet and granulated gelatine were not equivalent by weight. For the liquid here, about 1 oz (4 standard 1/4-oz envelopes, roughly 3 level tablespoons) is a reasonable working figure; use less if you only want a soft glaze.
- SoakingModern granulated gelatine blooms in five to ten minutes, not the long soak the original assumes. Sprinkle it over the cold water rather than dumping it in, or it clumps.
- "Highly seasoned stock"Season the stock before it sets — cold jelly tastes markedly flatter than hot broth, so it should taste slightly over-salted while liquid. Any commercial stock should be reduced first; thin stock gives a watery jelly.
- Free from all fatChill the stock and lift the fat cap off solid. Fat left in will bead on the surface of the finished jelly and dull it, and it also fouls the egg raft.
- The wineThe recipe does not specify; sherry or Madeira was a common choice for aspic and suits the quantity. It goes in before boiling, so some of the alcohol cooks off and the flavour concentrates.
- StrainingWet the doubled cheesecloth first and let the liquid run through under its own weight without squeezing or pressing. Coffee filters or a fine jelly bag work as well; a mesh sieve alone will not give you clear jelly.
- Yield and useRoughly a quart and a half before losses to the raft and evaporation, enough for a 1 1/2-quart mould or to glaze a large platter of cold meat. Set in the refrigerator for at least four hours; to unmould, dip the mould briefly in warm water.
The clarification method here, whipping egg whites and crushed shells into stock so the coagulating albumen traps suspended particles and rises as a raft, is far older than this recipe and comes out of French professional practice, where the same trick produces consommé gelatine sold by the box removed the day-long business of boiling calves' feet, which is part of why a clear aspic could be treated as an everyday preparation rather than a set piece for a trained cook.