Imagine this: it's the Gilded Age, you're at a swanky dinner party at the new Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and renowned chef de cuisine, Jules Harder rolls out of the kitchen with an ornate gelatin that has scallops, anchovies, capers, olives and hard boiled eggs suspended in it, topped with a whole lobster impaled with a mini sword.

Would you try it?

Believe it or not, savory aspic jellies made with chicken feet, whole fish, lamb hearts, and other ingredients that would surprise us, were not only common throughout different periods of history, they were popular, and even considered a luxury.

So how did aspics go from being a fancy feast proudly presented at dinner parties to a questionable dish that might get you banned from your neighborhood potluck?

Let's dig in.

Aspics are most commonly made from extracting collagen from the bones and skin of animals to make a gelatin.

It's like when you're roasting meat and you make a gravy from the pan drippings When the gravy cools it turns into this gelatinous substance.

The earliest known reference to an aspic is in a 10th century Arabic cookbook called the Kitab al- Tabikh, meaning The Book of Dishes.

The qaris, as it was called, was a fish gelatin filled with vegetables, spices, the fish tongue and lips, and was tinged gold with saffron.

From there, the dish moved to Europe fairly quickly.

In its most basic form, the ingredients for aspics were accessible to most people, even the peasant class.

Boiling down bones and joints of animals, parts that might have been discarded was not only resourceful, it was also packed with protein and was a great way to preserve meat and vegetables.

But by the beginning of the Renaissance, aspics became a way for the ruling class to differentiate themselves from the commoners.

Chefs serving the royal court began upping their game, turning aspics into works of art by clarifying the gelatin and adding color.

They were culinary feats with convoluted, multi-step recipes that were labor intensive and could only be achieved by chefs who had the skill and finesse to make them.

And some even required an entire culinary staff to create.

Elaborate molded aspics were even more of a flex because they needed to set in cooler temperatures, meaning the elites who were able to present tall, gelatinous structures, had access to some form of refrigeration.

From the 14th century, when King Henry the Eighth served his favorite spice infused wine aspic, through the 19th century, when they became the pinnacle of French haute cuisine, the ability to serve aspics became a status symbol.

They were exciting, visually stunning, and sometimes even confusing, making them a popular form of entertainment at banquets across Europe, and in the latter part of aspics heyday, the United States.

The reality of gelatin is that it was always accessible and easy to make, but the beautifully ornate gelatin on the tables of the upper class gave the impression that aspics were exclusive.

That perception began to change when powdered gelatin entered the scene in the mid-19th century.

To understand the rise and fall of aspics, it's best to understand the cycle of fashion trends.

Ken Albala, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific and author of the book The Great Gelatin Revival, theorizes that fashion, whether it be food, art or clothing, happens in stages.

He says that it starts when something is reserved for the upper class, where the exclusivity of the trend sets them apart.

But over time, people of "middling rank" start to mimic those trends, and as it becomes more common or even vulgar, according to, can the wealthy move on to the next thing that will maintain their distinction from the common folk.

And that happened to aspics during the 20th century.

The advent of powdered gelatin was the beginning of the end.

Jell-O, which started in 1895, was the biggest player on the scene.

During the early 1900s.

the product was a hit for the middle class because it was seen as more convenient, more affordable, and cleaner than boiling up old bones.

Jell-O molds and recipe booklets were even distributed to immigrants at Ellis Island, bringing the product into more homes.

According to Ken Albala it's not the convenience factor that made Jell-O super popular, but rather the fact that Jell-O's introduction to the market coincided with cultural shifts happening in America.

The beginning of the 20th century was a time of unbridled imagination.

The new millennium brought with it technological leaps and bounds, making futuristic things really trendy.

Despite the fact that forms of instant gelatin already existed, people were really enamored by the idea of opening up a package, adding water, and whipping up unnaturally bright and colorful aspics in a jiffy.

It was quite the novelty.

Aspics boomed in the mid-century.

There was nothing more middle class fancy than a Jell-O salad filled with ham, vegetables, hard boiled eggs, tuna, and even hot dogs floating in a vibrantly colored non-Newtonian fluid.

Which, by the way, a non-Newtonian fluid is simply neither a liquid nor a solid.

As it became more commonplace and started dipping into the waters of vulgarity, aspics fell out of favor with the upper class.

The highbrow culinary genre that they had used for centuries to assert their social dominance collapsed.

By the 1980s, aspics were like, so totally over.

But fashion trends are cyclical, and just like bell bottoms, dresses with fringe and puffy sleeves, trends do make comebacks.

Everything old is new again!

Aspics, though a culinary curiosity, may be making a triumphant return.

Aspics have been spotted on menus across the country, as well as in home kitchens, where cooks share their creations in social media groups like "Show Me Your Aspics" and "Aspics with threatening auras" Social media has helped spark so many trends over the years.

And since aspics straddle the line between horror and amazement with intense visuals, perhaps it's time for a comeback.