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Jellied Meat

A boiled beef shank shredded and set in a seasoned fat gel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jellied Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Boil the shank of beef for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. Remove the bone and fat from the meat and gristle.

  3. Tear the meat into shreds and cut up the gristle.

  4. Let the cooking liquid cool and skim off the fat.

Season and cook

  1. Add enough fat to the meat to achieve a soft hash consistency.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, mace, and allspice to taste.

  3. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Beef shank
Long simmering breaks down collagen and gristle, releasing gelatin that sets the jellied texture.
Fat (in the method)
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the shredded meat soft and hash-like rather than dry.
Mace
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the seasoned meat.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the rich beef.

The step that matters

Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Constant stirring stops the shredded meat and fat from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan, and spreads the seasoning and fat evenly through the hash.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, allspice. 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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