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Dessert

Calf's or Pig's Feet Jelly

A jelly made from boiled calf or pig's feet, sugar, wine, lemon, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Calf's or Pig's Feet Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Thoroughly cleanse and scrape the feet, and cover them well with pure water.

  2. Boil until thoroughly done.

  3. Set the stock aside in a cold place to solidify.

  4. The next day carefully skim off the grease from the surface and measure the stock.

Make the jelly

  1. To one gallon of stock, put three pounds of sugar, half a gallon good bright-colored wine, the juice, thinly sliced rind of six lemons, and the beaten whites of sixteen eggs.

  2. Stir all together over the fire until well mixed, and boil twenty minutes.

  3. Strain through a flannel bag as usual.

  4. Add stick cinnamon, one ounce mace, one dozen cloves, one dozen allspice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

79Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
21 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs (in the method)
Beaten whites bind impurities into a foam that is strained out, clearing the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the stock set into a firm jelly.
Lemons
Juice and rind add acidity and bright aroma to balance the rich stock.

The step that matters

Boil with the egg whites. Stirring the beaten whites into the hot stock and boiling them lets the proteins coagulate and trap cloudiness. Stirring too little or boiling too briefly leaves the jelly murky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, clove, allspice, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, allspice, cinnamon. 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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