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Jelly of Meat

A clear gelatinized meat stock made by simmering beef, veal, bacon or ham, wine, and spices, then straining and cooling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,606 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Jelly of Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Brown the beef, veal, bacon, and first glass of wine in a pot.

  2. Add the quart of stock, the second glass of wine, carrot, spices, and sweet herbs.

  3. Stew until the meat is tender and falls apart.

Strain and set

  1. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve or tamis.

  2. Let it cool and skim off the fat to achieve a clear jelly.

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 + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Breaks down during stewing to give the stock its meaty flavour and body.
Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin as it simmers, helping the cooled liquid set into a jelly.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that balance the rich meat flavour.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the meat and flavourings simmer in.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat after cooling. Fat left in the liquid stays suspended and clouds the jelly and can prevent a clean, clear set. Chilling lets the fat rise and solidify so it can be lifted away.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, ham, wine):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, wine. 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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