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Meat Jellies for Pies and Sauces

A gelatinous stock made from beef, veal, and ham, used as a base for pies and sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meat Jellies for Pies and Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the shin of beef, knuckle or neck of veal, and lean ham.

  2. Add 3 quarts of cold water and bring to a gentle simmer.

  3. Add the carrots, parsley, studded onion, bay leaves, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

Stew and clarify

  1. Stew very gently for 5 to 6 hours, ensuring it does not boil rapidly.

  2. Once cooked, strain the mixture through a fine sieve or cloth to clarify.

  3. Allow the jelly to cool, then carefully remove the fat from the surface.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 collagen that turns into gelatin as it stews.
Knuckle or neck of veal
Adds collagen and gelatin, helping the liquid set into a jelly as it cools.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the stock.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and background sweetness as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stew very gently. Boiling rapidly makes the stock cloudy and emulsifies fat into it, while a slow simmer keeps the liquid clear. Slow extraction also lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin, which is what sets the jelly.

Swap the mace

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

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

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