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Meat Jelly

A gelatinous broth made from calf's feet, simmered with vegetables and spices, thickened with egg whites and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Meat Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place calves’ feet and water in a kettle.

  2. Add onions, carrots, black pepper, celery seed, and green pot herbs in a muslin bag.

  3. Turn on steam.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Simmer for eight hours, adding water as needed.

  6. Draw off the liquid.

  7. Strain it.

Clarify and finish

  1. When it jells, skim the grease from the top.

  2. Return the skimmed grease to the kettle.

  3. Add lemon juice or tartaric acid.

  4. Heat to 180°F (82°C).

  5. Mix egg whites with an equal amount of water and crushed egg-shells.

  6. Stir the mixture into the melted jelly.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Strain through a wet flannel bag.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves’ feet
Release gelatin into the water, which sets as the jelly cools.
Egg whites
Coagulate when heated, trapping particles so the jelly strains clear.
Lemon juice or tartaric acid
Adds acidity that helps the clarifying egg whites coagulate and brightens flavor.
Black pepper
Adds aromatic heat that flavors the long-simmered stock.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg white mixture into the jelly and boiling. Egg whites must be stirred in evenly before boiling so they coagulate and collect impurities. Boiling too early or unevenly can cloud the jelly and leave it hard to strain clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, pepper, celery, lemon, egg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, pepper, celery, lemon, 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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