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Dessert

Wine Jelly From Calves' Feet

A gelatinous dessert made from calf's feet, wine, lemon, sugar, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 14,189 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Wine Jelly From Calves' Feet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Chop each calf's foot into four pieces.

  2. Wash the pieces well in cold water.

  3. Blanch the pieces.

  4. Put the feet in a stewpan with five pints of cold water.

  5. Boil gently for five hours.

  6. Skim carefully.

  7. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a basin to set.

  8. Once the jelly stock is cold, wipe off any grease with a clean cloth dipped in hot water.

Make the jelly

  1. Squeeze the juice of the lemons into a stewpan.

  2. Add lemon peel.

  3. Add whipped egg whites.

  4. Add crushed egg shells.

  5. Add sugar.

  6. Add cinnamon.

  7. Add cloves.

  8. Whisk these ingredients together.

  9. Add the jelly stock.

  10. Whisk until it boils.

  11. As soon as it boils, cover the stewpan.

  12. Move it to the side of the fire for twenty minutes to form a crust.

  13. Strain the jelly through a jelly bag or clean cloth that has been scalded.

  14. Add the sherry.

  15. Add the brandy.

Set and serve

  1. Garnish a jelly mold as desired.

  2. Pour in the jelly.

  3. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,779 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Calves' feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, which gives the jelly its body and setting power.
Eggs
Egg whites clarify the stock as they coagulate, trapping impurities that are then strained out.
Lemons
Juice adds acidity and brightness that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon and sherry.
Sherry
Adds wine flavour and aroma to the finished jelly.
Brandy
Adds warmth and aroma to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Whisk until it boils, then cover and keep off the heat. Egg whites must be whisked into the hot stock so they coagulate and collect impurities. Letting the mixture boil hard or stirring it roughly breaks up that clarifying crust, leaving the jelly cloudy.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Applebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, clove, cinnamon, sherry, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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