As for wasting food, as someone who cooks at home from real ingredients and publicly encourages other people to do the same, it seems to me that Michelle is rather a superstar of responsible use of and respect for food. If you cook, you will now and then cook things you do not want to eat. Forcing them down your gullet does not do anything for the environment. It is your underlying habits, rather than an isolated incident in which you make something you can’t bring yourself to eat, that determines what kind of citizen of the planet you are, as far as I’m concerned.

lori, glad i could make you laugh – and i’m glad to have warned you away.

tartelette, then i have to ask again, why, julia child? because i was led to believe that aspic-making was required to Master the Art of French Cooking. and here you are, french, telling me it was all for naught.

lily, (1) we were so grossed out by the final product that it would have been hard and (2) there’s so much gelatin in it that it starts to gel up 3 nanoseconds after you take it off the stove, so it’s hard for it NOT to be aspic.

casey, i like the capitalization. and you can overcome The Aspic with baby-back ribs, mac and cheese and a really good french dip and fries. (btw, welcome!)

zora, the parts are tasty. the house smelled good afterward. but that doesn’t save it.

lauren, so did we, lauren. and then we cut into it.

kellypea, yes, we did; and non, it did not move.

anna, i fully support Operation: Disappear Aspic. i name you lead organizer.

we tried to figure out the preservative thing but couldn’t. i understand it as a (gross) way to serve poached eggs at a 1974 wedding buffet, but that’s it.

kay, i appreciate your blessings.

sara, in our defense, we didn’t actually waste all of it. much gelatin was scraped off much chicken, and there were some VERY happy dogs in the house.

chessa, it wasn’t bravery. it was ADVENTURE. and an excuse to order in the french dip from white star. that shit is GOOD.

claudia, thanks!

camille, correct! in fact, because of the phrase “aspic is fucking gross,” stumbleupon completely refuses to accept the site, automatically classifying it as “adult content.”

kath, well, there was an off chance we would like it. very off. and i made it because part of the challenge when this blog was started was to explore new foods, methods, etc. aspic needed to be explored. and now it’s done, and i never have to do it again.

terri, doesn’t it?

karen, best word ever. i’ve decided aspic is going to be my scapegoat for everything, so it will come in handy.

emily, yes, gelatin and chicken! or meat! or fish! i’m sorry i had to introduce you to this. your life was probably better before.

jenny, RALPH.

Now, something that truly has scarred me for life was this mind-blowingly horrifying FISH ASPIC I had once in a country that will remain nameless lest I offend someone by mocking some treasured cultural phenomenon. But honestly, it was AWFUL. It was clear(ish), with peas and carrots suspended in it, and it tasted like fishy seaweed and the fairly bland white-fleshed fish it encased didn’t help matters. And we had to eat it, because under the circumstances it would have been deeply rude not to. But you can say “fish jello” to anyone that was on that trip and get a full-body gag in response. I maintain that our hosts were f*cking with us.

I have honestly never heard of aspic, and quite glad my verbal introduction to it was entertaining, if nothing else.