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Beef Jelly for Invalids

A gelatinous beef broth made with beef, calf's feet, ham, onions, carrots, cloves, pepper, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef Jelly for Invalids

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the onions, carrots, cloves, black pepper, sugar, ham, calf's feet, and beef in a pot in that order.

  2. Do not add water; let the mixture stand until it reduces to a thick mass.

Make the aspic

  1. Add 1 quart of water and bring to a boil for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  3. Once cooled, remove the fat from the top.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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 that lets the cooled stock set into a firm aspic.
Beef
Adds meaty flavour and body to the stock as it reduces.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Let the mixture reduce to a thick mass before adding water. Standing without water lets the meat and calf's feet release their juices and gelatin, concentrating flavour before dilution. Adding water too early would produce a weaker stock that may not set properly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, clove, pepper, sugar, ham, beef):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, clove, pepper, sugar, ham, beef. 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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