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Dessert

Calf's-fest Jelly Cake

A gelatinous dessert made from calf's feet, sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel, currant wine, sherry, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calf's-fest Jelly Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's feet

  1. Scald the calf's feet, remove the hair, and clean the calf's feet.

  2. Place the feet in cold water, using 2 quarts for 4 feet.

  3. Boil the feet slowly for 8-9 hours.

  4. Remove the bones.

  5. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

  6. Remove all fat and sediment from the jelly.

Make the stock jelly

  1. Put the jelly in a cleaned brass pan.

  2. Boil over low heat until very thick and dark.

  3. Spread a little jelly on small plates to dry.

  4. Turn the plates when cool.

  5. Lay the jelly on tins or paper at a distance from the fire to dry gradually.

  6. When clear and hard, store in paper bags.

Make the jelly cake

  1. Dissolve 4 ounces of jelly in 3 pints of water.

  2. Boil down to 1 quart.

  3. In a cleaned saucepan, combine the stock jelly, sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel, currant wine, sherry, and egg whites.

  4. Stir gently until boiling.

  5. Boil for 3-4 minutes.

  6. Pour through a jelly bag into a basin, repeating until it drips clear.

  7. Transfer to moulds or glasses.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cinnamon + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Provide gelatine that sets the jelly when cooled.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharp wine and lemon.
Egg whites
Trap impurities during boiling so they can be strained out, clarifying the jelly.
Currant wine
Adds acidity and fruity flavour to the jelly.
Sherry
Adds aroma and warmth to the jelly.

The step that matters

Pour through a jelly bag until it drips clear. Egg whites coagulate during boiling and trap sediment; straining slowly and repeating the pass until clear keeps the jelly bright and free of cloudiness.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, lemon, wine, sherry, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, lemon, wine, sherry, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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