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Calf’s-Feet Jelly Cake

A jelly cake made from calf's feet, water, salt, jelly, sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel, currant wine, sherry, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Calf’s-Feet Jelly Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's feet

  1. Scald the calf's feet and clean them, removing hair.

  2. Place the feet in cold water, using 4 quarts for 2 dozen feet.

  3. Boil slowly for 8-9 hours.

  4. Remove bones from the calf's feet.

  5. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve.

Make the jelly

  1. The next day, remove fat and sediment from the jelly.

  2. Boil the jelly in a cleaned brass pan until thick and dark.

  3. Spread a little jelly in small plates to dry.

  4. Cool and turn out the jelly.

  5. Lay the jelly on tins or paper near the fire to dry gradually.

  6. When clear and hard, store in paper bags.

Make the cake mixture

  1. Dissolve 4 ounces jelly in 3 pints water.

  2. Boil the mixture to 1 quart.

  3. Add ½ pound sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel, currant wine, sherry, and beaten egg whites.

  4. Stir gently until boiling.

  5. Boil for 3-4 minutes.

  6. Pour into a jelly bag set over a basin to strain.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cinnamon + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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
Supply the gelatine that sets the jelly when boiled and dried.
Egg whites
Clarify the liquid as they heat, collecting impurities so the jelly runs clear.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the wine and sherry.
Sherry or teneriffe
Adds aroma and flavour to the finished jelly.
Currant wine
Adds fruity acidity and flavour to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Boil for 3-4 minutes after adding the egg whites. Egg whites must be stirred in gently until the mixture boils, then boiled briefly. As they coagulate they trap particles, clarifying the liquid. Stirring too hard or boiling too long can break up the clumps and leave the jelly cloudy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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