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Savoury Jelly for Meat Pies

A clear savory jelly made from beef, veal, calf's foot, and herbs, used for meat pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Savoury Jelly for Meat Pies

4 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cut up the meat and put it into a stewpan with all the ingredients except the water.

  2. Set it over a slow fire to draw down.

  3. When the gravy ceases to flow from the meat, pour in the water.

  4. Let it boil up.

  5. Carefully take away all scum from the top.

  6. Cover the stewpan closely.

  7. Let the stock simmer very gently for 4 hours, avoiding rapid boiling to keep the jelly clear.

  8. When done, strain it through a fine sieve or flannel bag.

  9. When cold, the jelly should be quite transparent.

  10. If this is not the case, clarify it with the whites of eggs, as described in recipe No. 109.

Make the shrimp sauce

  1. Make the melted butter very smoothly by recipe No. 376.

  2. Shell the shrimps (sufficient to make 1/4 pint when picked) and put them into the butter.

  3. Season with cayenne.

  4. Let the sauce just simmer, but do not allow it to boil.

  5. When liked, add a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

728Calories
82 gProtein
36 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 10 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Anchovy100g210
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Shrimp100g cooked99
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Waternot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0
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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Adds savoury meat flavour to the stock that becomes the jelly.
Calf's-foot
Its collagen turns to gelatin as it simmers, helping the stock set into jelly.
Melted butter
Forms the rich base of the sauce and carries the shrimp flavour.
Shrimps
Provide the main flavour of the sauce once shelled and simmered in the butter.

The step that matters

Simmer the stock very gently. Rapid boiling makes the stock cloudy and can break up the gelatin structure, so the jelly loses its clarity. A slow simmer keeps the liquid clear and lets the gelatin set properly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, shrimp, anchovy, sauce, onion, carrot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, shrimp, anchovy, sauce, onion, carrot. 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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