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Spiced Jellied Beef

A cold, gelatinous beef dish flavored with herbs, salt, pepper, and pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spiced Jellied Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Place the beef pieces in a pot.

  2. Cover with cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Skim off any scum that rises.

  5. Reduce heat.

  6. Simmer until the meat falls apart.

  7. Strain the liquid.

Make the aspic

  1. Return the liquid to the pot.

  2. Add herbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Skim off any fat.

  5. Dissolve a small amount of gelatin in the liquid.

Set and serve

  1. Shred the meat.

  2. Mix the shredded meat with the gelatinous liquid.

  3. Pour into molds.

  4. Refrigerate until firm.

  5. Serve in slices garnished with pickles.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + gelatintop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  3. Pepper + gelatintop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat and savory flavor that the finished aspic is built around.
Gelatin
Sets the cooking liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Green pickles
Add a sharp, acidic contrast to the rich, savory meat.

The step that matters

Skim off any fat. Fat left in the liquid can cloud the aspic and make it greasy, and it can interfere with the gelatin setting cleanly, so the liquid should be skimmed well before the gelatin is added.

“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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