It was a strong, clarified chicken stock with dry white wine in it, jellied and set firmly, cut into cubes, and jumbled into dessert dishes, and garnished with chopped scallion. Sides were salad and bread, dessert was fruit and cheese.

It was very hot and muggy and eating that chicken broth as chicken soup would not have been nice. As it was, it was cool and refreshing, if a little weird. The trick was to let the aspic melt in your mouth.

I only had the chicken aspic cubes once at a friend's house. Since I wasn't nuts about the texture, I never duplicated it at home.

I think Jamie's problem is the one a lot of us have, that we were traumatized in our youth by Jello salads, some of them savory and all of them awful.

Stuff in aspic looks gorgeous, it shimmers and sparkles and veg under the jelly takes on a jewel like quality. But no thanks, really, you can have my share, I'll fill up on sides.

... that would convince me to make it:
boiled chicken? - meh
cottage cheese chopped liver? no way
aspic? not helping anything.

and the only way that's any good is in a chicken pot pie or chicken salad.

The whole thing looked to me like a "clean out the fridge and make it look spectacular" thing, the glaze of aspic and artfully arranged bits of veg adding nothing to it but a little visual appeal. It's a magazine recipe, one that photographs well but that's it.

I lived in Cambridge for a while. She lived in the snooty part and I lived in the slum, but I used to see her out and about. If using Knox unflavored gelatin is cheating, then she did it too. I doubt it was always used to stabilize whipped cream.