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Jelly, Meat, for Cold Pies

A gelatinous broth made from calf's foot, veal, and aromatics, used as a filling for cold pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Jelly, Meat, for Cold Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Place the calf's foot, veal, shallots, herbs, onion, sugar, lemon rind, salt, cayenne, and water in a stewpan.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the jelly through a bag and let it cool.

  2. Remove sediment and fat, then pour the gravy into the pie through an opening in the cover.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 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

Calf's foot
Releases gelatin during long simmering, which lets the stock set into a firm jelly when cold.
Veal knuckle or shoulder
Adds meaty flavour and body to the stock as it simmers slowly.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stock as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after boiling. Scum rising during the initial boil can cloud the stock and add impurities. Removing it early keeps the jelly clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, shallot, clove, sugar, lemon, pepper):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, shallot, clove, sugar, lemon, pepper. 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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