D-aspic-able

Picture it, you're at your first dinner party in months. You feel like you've finally gotten over the trauma of trying kefir for the first time and you're finally able to repress the memories of chugging down snake wine at that keg party in college. You're surrounded by familiar sights and smells; steak, potatoes even ambrosia salad. For once, it seems like everything's going to be normal. But then, your dear grandmama comes in, carrying a tray of what looks like Jell-o. She sets it on the table, saying it's something "from old country". You take one look and suddenly...

...your life is in shambles. I'm sorry to say; but you my friend have just experienced Aspic.

Basically, aspic is meat-flavored gelatin. Presumably, at some point in the Middle Ages people realized that if broth was left to cool for long enough, it would become a jelly. Things snowballed from there, until you had people tossing vegetables, meat and even boiled eggs in, creating aspic as we know it today.The basic procedure is to make a stock or consommé and let it cool. The gelatin naturally found in meat will start to congeal, resulting in a nice jelly. Before it sets it's possible to add any savory ingredient the cook can think of. I say savory because if sweet ingredients like fruit are used it would be more like a gelatin salad. After, aspic is typically served on cold plates to prevent it from melting.

For those who don't know, stock is made by simmering various ingredients in water, typically meat, bones or vegetables. Consommé is stock that has been clarified, which is a process that uses egg whites to remove fat and other unwanted particles.

Since stock can be made from basically any meat, it's theoretically possible to make aspic from virtually any animal; from beef, pork, chicken, turkey or even fish. Think about it, you could be enjoying salmon gelatin right now. However, stock alone might not provide enough gelatin to make a stable enough aspic and vegetable stock certainly won't provide enough to maintain a mold. So it's common to supplement it with additional gelatin from a mix.

Honestly, everyone I've tried to talk to about this has responded with utter horror. I'm sure it doesn't help that there's frequently entire fish encased in this stuff. But as far as weird food goes, aspic is potentially the least hideous. At least as long as the cook uses typical ingredients people would be comfortable with eating outside of a gelatin, like carrots or asparagus, it might actually be pleasant to eat.

But on the other hand, well...

Finally, like so many other hideous foods, aspic has it's own theme song by Simian Mobile Disco. Give it a listen: