It gives a whole new meaning to “mouldy food”.
@dduane took one look at this one…
…and said “It looks like a transporter accident!” After so much writing for Star Trek, she should know.
@pargolettasworld has already supplied a lot of the mid-20th century background, so I’m just adding that before then, even basic aspic / gelatine made clear enough to be part of table presentation was Rich Peoples’ Food, because of the time and effort needed to produce it.
It was already labour-intensive, what with preparing the ingredients – washing and splitting calf hooves*, pig trotters, cow cheeks and other collagen-rich pieces – then long boiling to get the gelatin out and the meat off the bones, while skimming off any scum left over from the washing, then further boiling to reduce it by at least half so it would solidify when cold.
(*Fans of Regency etc. romances may have read of invalids being fed with “calf’s-foot jelly”. This is what’s meant: bland, easily digested and presumably nutritious since it has all the “goodness” of the meat in concentrated form. It’s far more likely that any “goodness” had boiled away…)
The bones and meat scraps were strained off, and that was when most kitchens stopped, because ordinary aspic didn’t have to be crystal clear. Besides nourishment for the ailing, its principal use was as edible glue or binder for non-wealthy food like brawn, head cheese and raised meat pies - which now are made with prime meat, but then were made with the same off-cuts and leftover bits.
As Terry Pratchett wrote: “There is nothing that a man with a big enough mincer can’t put in a sausage” and there was the same suspicion about old-timey pies; Mrs Lovett from “Sweeney Todd”, anyone?
This is brawn, but it’s very similar to what one of those pies looks like with its crust off…
…which is why I have an unconfirmed notion that some kinds of meat pie started life not as pies but as brawn in a “coffyn” - meaning a pastry case not intended for eating, think of Tupperware made from flour and water. The gelatine, once set, held everything including the pastry in place for transport to market (then) and allowed uniform slices for serving (then and now)…
None of these photos show crystal-clear aspic, since it wasn’t a visual aspect. To get it that way meant more work: boiling again to clarify it, skimming off yet more scum and particles that would prevent it from being completely transparent, then finishing by pouring it through a fine sieve lined with muslin.
Cloudy or clear, aspic would go solid as it cooled and be stored that way, then melt when heated for use.
Handy stuff, but it’s easy to see how the invention of commercial gelatine made all this so much easier, and why there was a rush to try it. Also, commercial gelatine didn’t / doesn’t have a pronounced meat flavour, so can be used more easily for desserts.
Aspic is usually a shade of gold or brown, but can be coloured white, green, brown or red with appropriate ingredients. This…
…looks like a half-hearted attempt to do chicken in the visually impressive 19th Century style called “chaud-froid” – pron. shoh-fr’wah and meaning “hot-cold” - apparently because a meat normally served hot, like chicken, was deliberately served cold. (Some sources claim the term applies to the sauce - made hot like bechamel etc., but presented cold like mayonnaise.)
I call that milk chicken half-hearted because chaud-froid is usually decorated with more than a couple of slices of banana.
Once you see the front of this one as a sad face with a black moustache, you can’t unsee it.
I think the orange diamonds are sweet pepper, but could be smoked salmon.
And this is “harlequin chicken chaud-froid” as served at the court of the Sun King in Versailles.
On the subject of bananas, ham and hollandaise I say Nope-nope-nope, on the subject of a crown roast of hot-dogs I say Kids’ parties only…
…is the most attractive of the lot - maybe because it’s not translucent so you can’t see weird complicated shapes lurking inside!
Try this version: use little chunks of fish - possibly salmon, possibly smoked - because IMO sour cream (or yoghurt), lemon and dill would work better with fish than chicken. Leave out the blender veg; keep it simple.
Make the salad in the middle light, fresh-tasting and unfussy - torn Romaine lettuce leaves, rocket or watercress, chopped green spring onion and thin-sliced cucumber, simply dressed with EV olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Do this on a hot day and serve it up with cold, dry white wine.
Speak nicely to the fishmonger / people at the fish counter and ask if they’ll sell you the untidy off-cuts of smoked salmon cheap. They might not, but then they might. Nothing ventured, nothing gained… :-)
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