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To Clarify Meat Jelly

A clarified gelatin made from meat stock, egg whites, vinegar, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and sherry work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 158 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

To Clarify Meat Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Prepare the meat stock and let it cool completely.

  2. Carefully remove all the fat from the cooled stock.

  3. Test the consistency by placing a small piece on ice; it should be stiffer than sweet jelly.

  4. If too stiff, add more broth; if too soft, reduce the stock over heat until thickened.

Clarify the jelly

  1. In a basin, whisk together the egg whites, water, vinegar, and sherry.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil, then whisk in the egg mixture quickly.

  3. Continue whisking for a few minutes until just below boiling, then remove from heat and taste for seasoning.

  4. Cover the pot and place it a little away from the heat, adding hot cinders on top for five minutes.

  5. Line a jelly stand with a napkin and pour the jelly through it into a basin, discarding the first run until clear.

  6. Pour the clarified jelly into a plain mold or sauté pan.

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. Tarragon + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together158 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Egg + tarragontop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

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

  4. Sherry + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Tarragon + meattop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping impurities so the stock becomes clear.
Meat stock
Supplies the body and flavour that set into the jelly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps the egg whites coagulate and brightens the flavour.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a rounded, sweet-tart flavour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg mixture into the boiling stock. Egg whites must be whisked in quickly so they disperse evenly; if they set in lumps, they cannot trap impurities and the jelly stays cloudy.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sherry, meat):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Tarragonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sherry, meat. 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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