Sohla tackles the wildest recipe yet – an aspic jelly with fish tongues and lips from the earliest known Arabic cookbook, in this episode of Ancient Recipes.
THE RECIPE
Ingredients:
– 2 tablespoons coriander seeds, coarsely ground
– 1 tablespoon dried spikenard
– 5 whole cloves
– 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
– 1 teaspoon whole long pepper
– 6 to 8 large carp heads
– ½ cup white wine vinegar
– 1 small bunch parsley, tied with twine
– 1 3-inch piece galangal, scrubbed & split in half lengthwise
– 1 3-inch piece ginger, scrubbed & split in half lengthwise
– 1 3-inch piece cassia
– 3 small onions, root trimmed & peeled
– 2 teaspoons saffron threads
Process:
1. In a double-layered piece of cheesecloth, combine coriander, spikenard, cloves, black pepper, and long pepper, and wrap in a bundle securing with twine. Wrap parsley together in a bundle and secure with twine.
2. Add carp heads to a large stockpot and cover with water. Add vinegar, parsley, galangal, ginger, cassia, onions, and the bundle of spices.
3. Cover and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, partially covered, until the heads are totally tender – about 1 hour.
4. Use tongs to remove the heads and set aside until cool enough to handle. Strain the stock and discard the solids. Return the stock to the pot.
5. With your fingers, crush the saffron threads into a small bowl. Add ¼ cup of the fish stock and set aside to bloom.
6. Pull the lips and tongues from the fish heads and add to the pot of fish stock.
7. Add the steeped saffron to the pot and gently simmer uncovered until reduced by half.
8. Portion the mixture into a serving bowl and chill until set.
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Ancient Recipes with Sohla takes the food you know and love and traces it back to its origins. In each episode, Sohla El-Waylly details the surprising history of some of our favorite dishes as she attempts to recreate the original version using historical cooking techniques and ingredients. Along the way, Sohla highlights the differences between the ancient recipe and how we would prepare the modern version today.
http://histv.co/ancientrecipes
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CREDITS
Host
Sohla El-Waylly
Created By
Brian Huffman
Executive Producers
Sarah Walker
Brian Huffman
Jon Erwin
Executive Producer
Sohla El-Waylly
Co-Producer
John Schlirf
Writers
Jon Erwin
Diana Davis
Historian – Scripts
Ken Albala
Guest
Ken Albala
Post-Production Supervisors
Jon Erwin
John Schlirf
Editor
Aaron Mackof
Colorist
John Schlirf
Mixer
Tim Wagner
Manager, Rights & Clearances
Chris Kim
Executive Creative Director, A+E Networks
Tim Nolan
VP, Marketing Production, A+E Networks
Kate Leonard
VP, Brand Creative, History
Matt Neary
Music Courtesy of
Extreme Music
A+E Signature Tracks
Additional Footage & Photos Courtesy of
Getty Images
Alamy
Pond5
Wikimedia
source
42 Comments
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Growing up in Poland and Germany from the 80s meat and veggie jelly was increcibly popular and absolutely delicious. Karp was sometimes for christmas and trust me it is the most disguisting fish you can eat.
That modern one is straight outta 70s Dinner Party
You discarded all the head meat!!! It’s the best of the dish! It’s for royalty 🫅 Heads are delicious that way!! 😤
As a child I loved our holiday meal which would feature two jello on the dinner table. My absolute favourite was the green jello with strips in it. I was later Horrified to learn it was lime jello with shredded cabbage floating in it. The other had pineapple, mini marshmallows, coconut, and maybe more cabbage? Or carrot?
Thank you for sharing the aspic. I don't know if I am that brave!
I haven’t watched the episode yet but I’m going to go ahead and weigh in on the come back question with a resounding…No
🎶Fish heads, fish heads, rolly poly fish heads. Fish heads, fish heads, eat ‘em up, yum! I took a fish head to the movies. I didn’t have to pay to get it in!🎶
I've eaten something similar all My life, we call it silta and the Russians call it holidays , not sure about the spelling. They are made from pigs feet or reindeer
Sohla, I have my mother's collection of copper molds for summer salad luncheons. These are wonderful for having a meal prepared ahead in the heat of summer. I use unflavored gelatin for salmon, dill, mayonnaise and lemon juice for salmon aspic. Then I use tomato (or V-8 with Tabasco), celery, cucumber, Worcestershire sauce and bitters for a tomato aspic that is reminiscent of a Bloody Mary. Add some celery sticks, good olives and a cheese biscuit. Serve it on nice dishes with a paper doily & your mama's good silver and you have a summer ladies lunch that is a gift of time.
I have always remembered my Great Aunt's pickled beef tongue, it was so good vinegary and delicious not sure what spices she used. I remember maybe vinegar in the water, a cider vinegar?
Great work as always Sohla! I especially like the interview segments in these videos.
My first thought was why the lips n tounge n not the cheeks?
An interesting recipe, but when she named one of the fish heads “Gus”, she lost me. Too, too weird. Also she is far too chatty. 🙀
Come back? It never really went away :o) Pork Jelly is a traditional Christmas (and sometimes Easter) food in Hungary since at least the 1600s. I still love it.
the fish bladder thing is still sometimes used in wine making. It's used to clarify wines since it binds to compounds that make the wine cloudy. It's more common for winemakers to use milk proteins or gelatin, but fish bladders are still used. That's why not all wines are vegan, or even vegetarian
Tomato aspic is a favorite.
Gross. Can't even watch it.
🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮hahah!
One of Julia Child's early shows has her cutting up jellied stock to make decorations for some meat dish she made—I remember it being rather like the SNL skit about the chicken. The cutting didn't quite work because the jelly was very slippery. My mother used to make a cranberry gelatin mold at Thanksgiving. I don't know how she did it however.
Sohla is the best.
FISH HAVE HEADS?!?! NO!!!!!!
Kinda like hogs head cheese
They should use the excess fish byproduct for fertilizer. It seems wasteful to throw it away. Also, why lips and tongues?
Nice
Petcha is delicious
Aspic was almost always grainy and not strained (no matter how 'good for you' it was supposed to be)… And yes tuna in jello is/was awful in the 50s and 60s as well as now! I can handle jello with fruit/veggies/nuts (waldorf)… but not cheese or meats! My mom would serve the tuna one as a 'light, summer lunch.' Yuck.
I think the advantage of gelatin dishes for women is that if you are having a dinner party, you can make the gelatin do dish the day before
The second one seems very festive, like something you would have for Christmas with other cold dishes.
Yes. Old fashioned meat jelly good.
I really appreciate how Sohla overcomes her personal limits to experience this recipe for science
Hi Sohla! Great fish lips! 😝😝😝
The family Haagenson has a old recipe that dates back to the 50’s when “Gammy” would make shrimp aspic for Christmas sometimes thanksgiving.
It had a yummy V-8 flavor and has plump bay shrimp and celery inside oh! And slices of green olives. Kind of like a shrimp cocktail. They drank Gin and Vodka martinis so it was after cocktails and before Turkey. It seems from what you say is that fish is common in aspic. Well this is shrimp and they also made Crab mold too. More like an tuna mild but way better cause of Crab. Doesn’t it would great? Nobody but my brother and I eat it now 😃😃😂 the girls can’t do the tomato jelly but it’s so good if you have a little horseradish in it too!
Well, thanks for a trip down memory lane! It wasn’t fishy
Will we have a choice with this “New world order”? It’s beginning to look like a law protected depression
"The aspic!! They've ruined the aspic!! Oh, that dreadful Packard woman". 3 stooges.
history channel should really make their own channel for sohla….i'd probably sub then, to avoid their other stuff
Gelatin meat broth with meat and veggies tamale? Delicious with the green leaf covering it in foil,served warm!
Lime Jello with cottage cheese,Mayonaise,canned pineapple bits,+chopped walnuts makes a tasty salad in my opinion… My Grandmother called it "For Goodness Sakes Jello Salad". My wife makes it a few times a year.
Thank you for this respectful exploration of aspics. It seems like most folks think it's hip to dis aspics. If millions of humans eat something for hundreds of years it must be pretty good. Lots of things that are quite nice seem slightly off putting when they are unfamiliar. Try something new to you for heavens sake.
you crack me up, baby
Lime Jell-o! I'd like your aspics on a hot day, although I do have to say the fish lips are a little creepy for me. I've made bone broth that solidified at room temperature.
Got cats?
With all due respect to our ancestors, I think we can leave aspic to the past where it most certainly belongs. 🤣
👀 the fish lips are lowkey terrifying in the unmolded jello
It was tough to watch you eat this 😅 …maybe it needs bread? You know, to eat like jelly on toast?
Oh wow! This morning I watched King Henry VIII’s brunch vid, and requested this vid in the comments… but OF COURSE you already made it 🥰