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Strong Meat Jelly for Weak Persons

A gelatinous dish made by stewing beef, ham, veal, salt, and mace, then clarifying with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Strong Meat Jelly for Weak Persons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine beef, ham, veal, salt, and mace in a large pot.

  2. Cover with water and stew for 7 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

Clarify the jelly

  1. Remove the fat from the top.

  2. Clear the jelly with egg whites and pass it through a jelly bag.

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

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

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

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

  3. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Beef + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Contributes rich meat flavor and gelatin-forming collagen to the jelly.
Ham hock
Adds savory depth and collagen that helps the broth set as it cools.
Veal knuckle
Provides collagen and body, which gives the aspic its firm, jelly-like set.
Egg whites (in the method)
Bind to cloudy particles so they can be strained out, leaving a clear jelly.

The step that matters

Stewing for 7 hours. Long, gentle simmering breaks down collagen in the meat and bones into gelatin, which is what makes the stock set. A hard boil can cloud the liquid and leave it weak or murky.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Pepperfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

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