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Shrimp Salad with Aspic Border, No. 2
Decorate the sides of a ring mould, chilled, with hard-boiled eggs cut in halves, alternated with hearts of lettuce cut in halves; dip the egg and lettuce in half-set aspic, and they will adhere to the sides of the mould. Then proceed as above.
A garnish variation rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have already read the preceding shrimp salad and aspic instructions, and only tells you how to line the mould. A few points on making it behave.
- "Proceed as above"The recipe is the second of a pair, so the filling and the aspic quantities live in the entry before it. On its own the page gives you a decorating method, not a full formula; pair it with any firm shrimp salad bound with mayonnaise and a clear aspic set with gelatin.
- The hinge: half-set aspicEverything depends on catching the aspic at the point where it coats a spoon and holds a line but still flows. Too warm and the eggs slide to the bottom of the mould; too cool and it sets in lumps that show through the finished ring. Set the bowl of aspic over ice water and stir until it thickens to raw egg-white consistency, and rewarm briefly if it goes too far.
- Chilling the mould"Chilled" means genuinely cold: an hour in the refrigerator, or a few minutes packed in ice. A cold mould helps the dipped aspic set on contact, which is what makes the decoration hold to the sides.
- Aspic strengthAspic of this period might be a reduced veal or fish stock stiff enough to gel on its own, or a stock set with packaged gelatin. With modern stock you will need added gelatin: about one envelope (roughly 2 1/4 tsp) to 2 cups of liquid is a common starting point for a set firm enough to unmould, and more if the ring is to hold a sharp edge. Fish or shellfish stock suits shrimp better than beef.
- Egg placementThe recipe does not say which way the halves face; cut side against the mould wall is what shows the yolk through the finished jelly. Lettuce hearts wilt and weep if they sit long in aspic, so the salad is best assembled the day it is served.
- UnmouldingDip the mould in warm — not hot — water for five to ten seconds, run a thin knife around the top edge, and invert onto a chilled platter. Hot water melts the decorative layer and blurs the pattern you went to the trouble of building.
- Serving and holdingThe recipe gives no mould size; a ring of about 6 cups would serve roughly six to eight with salad heaped in the centre. Mayonnaise-dressed shrimp and gelatin both want steady refrigeration; keep it cold until it goes to the table and do not leave it standing out through a long meal.
Moulded aspic salads were the show pieces of turn-of-the-century American entertaining, and this book — Janet McKenzie Hill's collection of salads, sandwiches and chafing-dish cookery, published at the end of the 1890s — belongs squarely to that moment. Commercial powdered gelatin had by then made clear jelly a matter of a package rather than a day of simmering calves' feet, and cooks could turn out a glittering ring on a cold buffet. Shrimp, cheap and abundant along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts and increasingly shipped inland canned, was a natural filling. The technique here, dipping garnishes in half-set jelly so they cling to a chilled mould, belongs to the French professional kitchen's aspic work, filtered through the cooking-school movement that Hill and her contemporaries were building in Boston.