Skip to main content
Dessert

Calves’ Feet Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made by simmering calf's feet, sugar, lemon, egg whites, and wine, then setting in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 538 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Calves’ Feet Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Remove fat from between the claws of the calves' feet and wash them in lukewarm water.

  2. Place the feet in a large stew-pan and cover with water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim the surface.

  4. Simmer gently for 6-7 hours until reduced to about 2 quarts.

  5. Strain the liquid through a sieve and skim off any oily substance.

  6. Let the liquid cool overnight and remove the oily layer before proceeding.

Make the jelly

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the strained liquid with sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, egg whites and shells, and sherry or madeira.

  2. Whisk the mixture until it boils, then simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag, pouring the strained liquid back into the bag until clear.

  4. Pour the jelly into molds.

  5. Refrigerate until firm, adding ice if the weather is warm.

  6. Add isinglass when adding the wine for a firmer jelly.

  7. Flavor and color as desired.

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. Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Saffron + spinachtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Lemon + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Sherry + saffrontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Their natural gelatin dissolves into the broth, giving the jelly its body as it sets.
Egg whites and shells
Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles so the liquid clears to a bright jelly.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavor that cuts the richness of the stock.
Sherry or madeira
Adds aroma and depth of flavor to the jelly.

The step that matters

Clearing the strained liquid through the jelly bag. Egg whites must be heated to coagulate and trap cloudiness; the liquid needs to be fully clear before molding, since rushing or stirring the bag lets particles pass through and leaves the jelly cloudy.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootfits about as well

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes