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Dessert

Calfs-foot Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from simmered calf's feet, lemon, sugar, spices, and egg whites, set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Calfs-foot Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut across the first joint and through the hoof of the calf's feet.

  2. Place the feet in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Remove the feet, wash thoroughly in cold water, and place them in a porcelain-lined saucepan with 3 pints of cold water.

  4. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer very slowly for 5 hours.

  5. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve or coarse towel.

  6. Let the liquid stand overnight to set.

Clarify and flavour

  1. Remove the fat from the top and wash the surface with a towel dipped in boiling water.

  2. Melt the jelly in a porcelain-lined saucepan.

  3. Add lemon juice, lemon rinds, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon stick.

  4. In a bowl, beat the whites of the eggs with the blanched shells, then pour into the saucepan.

  5. Stir until boiling, then simmer gently for 10 minutes, skimming off any scum.

  6. Prepare a piece of flannel by pouring warm water through it.

  7. After 10 minutes of simmering, pour the jelly through the flannel into a bowl, repeating until clear.

Finish and set

  1. Add ½ cup of sherry, stir well, pour into molds, and place on ice or in a cool place until set.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,237 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, which gives the jelly its body and setting power.
Egg whites
Bind to impurities when boiled, lifting particles so the jelly clears.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharp lemon and sherry.
Sherry
Adds aroma and flavour at the end, stirred in just before setting.

The step that matters

Straining and clarifying the jelly. Skimming scum and passing the liquid through flannel removes fat and cloudy particles. Boiling the egg whites with the shells traps these impurities, so the jelly sets clear rather than murky.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, cinnamon, egg, sherry. 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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