It is not always easy to trace the history of a culinary achievement. Take, for example, aspic, the subject of this month's leçon.
The word “aspic” is the French name for spike or spikenard, a lavender-flavored herb which was one of the pot herbs added to gelatin in the early days of its use. Gelatin itself was discovered by Denis Papio, a 17th-century French scientist, who accidentally found it in the course of his experiments with a steam digester in 1679. The steam digester, incidentally, was the forerunner of today's pressure cookers.
It was Carême who evolved from Papin's gelatin the savory, attractive dishes that stand in all their shimmering elegance on today's buffet tables. More and more, as the years roll on, gelatin is associated with desserts rather than with main dishes. But in hot July weather, a clear, sparkling aspic of meat or fish has infinite appetite appeal, and it is with such aspics that we concern ourselves in this article.
In my very small town in France, we knew little about aspics. Such grand dishes seemed surrounded by an aura of city sophistication, possibly because it was only in the city that one could be sure of an adequate supply of ice. Yet small-town cbarcutiers have always included among their delicatessen meats headcheese, which is, of course, a savory loaf of cooked meat from a pig's head, molded in gelatin derived by cooking the pig's feet.
Cold jellied dishes have always been popular in the great houses of Europe and wherever eating is considered a fine art, and there are extant pictures of elaborate molded masterpieces that date back to the early nineteenth century. These intricate designs look hours of painstaking work, and while they were most effective artistically, we would not today consider their artificial appearance very appetizing.
Cold chicken and fish dishes in aspic were part of the regular cuisine at the Paris Ritz when I was there in the early 1900's, but they were made only to order. It was not until 1906, at the London Ritz, that 1 first saw the cold buffet used for banquets and parties. I remember one outstanding party directed by Monsieur Malley. our chef des cuisines, for the distinguished Monsieur Sebastopoulo, who was first secretary of the Russian embassy. The guest list included the entire diplomatic corps of London, as well as all the members of European and Asiatic royalty, nobility, and aristocracy who were in London for the “season.” The rooms were decorated to resemble a Russian winter, with artificial snow and ice, and intricate lighting effects. For the late supper that followed the entertainment and dancing. Monsieur Sebastopoulo had ordered a sumptuous buffet, including truite en gelée. We molded the trout in jelly and presented them handsomely on silver servers. But Mr. Sebastopoulo was not pleased. He waved our platters away. Expense? N'imporie! The trout were to be very tiny; they should be molded in a crystal-clear aspic flavored with Chablis; and they should be so presented in great shallow glass bowls that they would look as if they were swimming about in an aquarium. The effect, when it was accomplished, was truly startling!
This party and others of the sort served me well as inspiration when I came to New York to take charge in the kitchens of the old Ritz. Our hotel was one of the first, if not the first, to make the cold buffet a regular summertime attraction. Almost any food can be prepared with aspic—meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, vegetables. And for the hostess who plans to do most of the preparation for a party herself, there is the advantage that most of the work can he done well ahead of time. leaving for the last minute only such minor tasks as slicing and garnishing.
An aspic may be made in several ways. The simplest way. of course, is to add unfavored gelatin to cunned consommè or bouillon. Most gelatin today comes in small envelopes that contain enough to congeal from 1 ¾ to 2 cups liquid. First soften the gelatin for 5 minutes in cold liquid, then dissolve it in boiling hot liquid. If you use a canned consommé or bouillon, soften the gelatin in ¼ cup cold water and dissolve it in 1 ½ cups boiling bouillon.
The professional chef always makes his own aspic, of course, from a soup stock which he clarifies with chopped lean beef and egg white. To ensure that the Stock will jelly to the desired stiffness, he must put into the soup kettle something, such as calf's feet, that is richer in gelatin than ordinary bones, or, if these are unavailable, two or three veal shin bones instead of each calf's foot specified. Or he may use six or seven chicken feet, which have the gelatin content of one calf's foot.
Pinterest
