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To Make Savoury Jelly

A clear savoury jelly made by boiling beef, pork and vegetables in water, then clarifying with wine and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph (1762–1828) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Make Savoury Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Put eight or ten pounds of coarse lean beef, or the same quantity of the inferior parts of the fore quarter of veal, into a pot with two gallons of water, a pound of lean salt pork, three large onions chopped, three carrots, a large handful of parsley, and any sweet herb that you choose, with pepper and salt.

  2. Boil it very gently till reduced to two quarts.

  3. Strain it through a sieve.

Clarify and strain

  1. Next day, take off the fat.

  2. Turn out the jelly, and separate it from the dregs at the bottom.

  3. Put it on the fire with half a pint of white wine, a large spoonful of lemon pickle, and the whites and shells of four eggs beaten.

  4. When it boils clear on one side, run it through the jelly bag.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

665Calories
61 gProtein
34 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse lean beef
Provides the meat flavour and body that give the stock its savoury character.
Lean salt pork
Adds savoury fat and seasoning depth to the stock.
Three large onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they cook slowly into the stock.
Four eggs
Whites and shells bind to impurities and clarify the jelly as it heats.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to brighten the savoury flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Boiling the clarified jelly until it runs clear. Egg whites and shells must be heated gently so they coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Boiling too vigorously can break up the raft, leaving the jelly murky.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, white wine, onion, carrot, egg):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, white wine, onion, carrot, 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.