162—Fish Aspic with Red Wine

This aspic stock is the Court-bouillon with red wine No. 165, Court-bouillon with Red Wine, which has served in cooking the fish for which the aspic is intended; this fish is generally either trout or salmon; sometimes also, but less commonly, a carp or a pike.

This stock must first of all have its grease thoroughly removed; it should then be poured carefully away, reduced if necessary, and the required quantity of gelatine added. This cannot be easily determined, as all gelatines are not alike, and the stock may have contracted a certain consistence from its contact with the fish. One can, therefore, only be guided by testing small quantities cooled in ice, but care should be taken that the aspic be not too firm.

The clarification of this aspic is generally made with white of egg in the proportion of one white per quart. The white, half-whisked, is added to the cold stock, and the latter is put over an open fire and stirred with a spatula. As soon as it boils, the aspic is poured through a serviette fixed on to the legs of an overturned stool. The first drippings of the fluid are put back on to the serviette if they do not seem clear, and this operation is repeated until the required clearness is obtained.

It almost invariably happens that, either during the cooking of the fish or during the clarification, the wine loses its colour through the precipitation of the colouring elements derived from the tannin.

The only way of overcoming this difficulty is to add a few drops of liquid carmine or vegetable red; but, in any case, it is well to remember that the colour of red-wine aspic must never be deeper than a sombre pink.