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Opsit Jelly with Whipped Cream

A gelatinous stock made from beef shin, calf's foot, veal knuckle, poultry trimmings, onions, carrots, shallots, herbs, bay leaves, mace, ham slices, and water, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Opsit Jelly with Whipped Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat and place it in a large pot with all ingredients except the water.

  2. Set over low heat to draw down, then add the water when the gravy stops flowing.

Simmer and skim

  1. Bring to a boil and remove any scum from the surface.

  2. Cover the pot and let the stock simmer gently for 4 hours to ensure clarity.

Strain and clarify

  1. Strain through a fine sieve or flannel bag; the jelly should be transparent when cold.

  2. If not clear, clarify with egg whites.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides rich meat flavour and gelatin that lets the stock set into a jelly.
Calf's foot
Adds collagen, which turns into gelatin and helps the stock firm up when cold.
Knuckle of veal
Contributes collagen and body, adding gelatin for a firmer set.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they cook slowly into the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the stock's background flavour.
Egg whites (in the method)
Bind fine particles to the proteins and lift them out, clearing the cooled stock.

The step that matters

Keeping the stock at a gentle simmer. A hard boil breaks up fat and fine particles into the liquid, making it cloudy. A slow simmer with skimming keeps the stock clear, so the finished jelly can look transparent when cold.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, onion, clove, carrot, shallot, ham):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, onion, clove, carrot, shallot, ham. 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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