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Jelly for Meat or Raised Pies

A gelatinous mixture made from veal gravy, isinglass, tarragon vinegar, and egg whites, used as a filling for meat or raised pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Jelly for Meat or Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in a little veal gravy.

  2. Combine the dissolved isinglass with the remaining veal gravy and tarragon vinegar.

  3. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  4. Clarify the mixture with the whites of 6 eggs.

  5. Strain the mixture through a 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. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Veal + tarragontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Tarragon + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,845 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Whites of eggs
Bind to impurities during clarifying so they can be strained out, leaving a clear jelly.
Veal gravy
Forms the savoury liquid base of the jelly.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and aromatic flavour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Clarify the mixture with the whites of 6 eggs. Egg whites coagulate and trap cloudy particles as the liquid heats. If the mixture is stirred roughly or boiled before clarifying, the particles stay suspended and the jelly turns cloudy rather than clear.

“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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