Gelatin was for super fancy food and then got cheap so they started putting everything in gelatin

the only difference between aspic and a good french stock is temperature

I thought the aspic thing was a combination of the US beef lobby and Cold War logic (aspic and tinned ingredients being among the stuff you could stock a fallout bunker with).

*at least in the period after home refridgeration became common.

it's just a pre-refrigeration preservation method

Yeah it goes way back. Victorians were all about aspic.

it's even older than i thought wow (Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi was around in the early 800s ad)

remember what they took from you (complimentary, grateful)

More trivia: pie (meat pie) used to basically be made in wallpaper paste inedible crust and then you would pour fat in the top through a hole. The fat would seal the filling and then you would use the pie as a storage/transport container. To eat you would scrape off the fat and discard the crust.

ooh that's neat! i knew about fat caps like that but only in jars or terrine molds or something. the crust makes sense for travel tho

That’s how those Tudor pies have all that detail - you weren’t supposed to eat the crust so you just pressed it in the mold.

i have learned a thing. thank you for the knowledge!

Lucky 10,000!

There were also “raised coffin” pies, where the (inedible) lower crust is the cooking vessel, slid into the oven without a pan or dish. Hot Water Crust Pastry was essentially wheat-based disposable pottery. The top crust, not being structural, could be edible & tasty. 😏

Cool!

"wheat-based disposable pottery." 😀 I love these cook's descriptions of pie crust through the ages.

I still use a fat cap, but butter, when I make pate or spreads for gifts. So the cap is actually edible.

Wallpaper paste. Very apt description. As you would know, hot water pie crust is similar but incorporates fat and is used to make sturdy stand pies. But as much as I admire the stand pie, the process to make the crust just makes me heave. 🤮

I have done well making raised pies with an egg-enriched shortcrust. It has enough body to hold. I haven’t tried it with the juicy cook-for-ever meats though.

Ooh, I'd like to know more about the egg enriched crust. I don't make them often now but I'd just been using a less fat shortcrust. With lots of patching.😏 And yes, easy to see why they loved the less edible version, the way they used to fill them.

From The Pie Room, by Calum Franklin. You mix the eggs into the water and keep them v. Cold to shock the butter - otherwise like any short crust.

Oh cool, thanks. Maybe around Christmas when I make special stuff I'm going to test this out.

Nobody knew what aspic was in the 70s & 80s, we just had Jell-O

For explaining aspic, I'm gonna go with the abundance of drugs in the 70s.

Good head cheese is something to appreciate. Broader use of aspic was, I think, mostly about presentation. Sort of like clear acrylic furniture.