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Dessert

Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from calf's feet, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the calves' feet

  1. Scald the calves' feet to remove hair.

  2. Slit the feet in two and remove fat between the toes.

  3. Wash the feet well in warm water.

Make the jelly

  1. Place the feet in a stewpan with cold water and bring to a boil, removing all scum.

  2. Boil for 6-7 hours.

  3. Strain through a sieve into a basin and let it cool to set.

  4. Once firm, remove fat from the top.

Clarify

  1. Transfer the jelly to a saucepan.

  2. Add 6 ounces of sugar and the beaten egg whites and shells to every quart of 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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Provide the gelatin that sets the jelly as they simmer.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness to the finished jelly.
Eggs
Whites and shells are added to the jelly to help clarify it.

The step that matters

Removing scum while the feet come to a boil. Scum left on the surface during the first boil can cloud the jelly and spoil its clarity. Skimming it off as it rises keeps the finished jelly clear.

“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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