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Meat Jellies for Pies and Sauces

A clear gelatin made by simmering beef, veal, ham, and aromatics in water.

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

Make the stock

  1. Slowly stew equal parts of shin of beef and knuckle or neck of veal with 3 quarts of cold water for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. Add thick slices of lean ham, carrots, parsley, onion, bay leaves, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  3. Ensure the mixture is gently simmered to keep the jelly clear.

Finish

  1. After cooling, carefully remove the fat from the top.

  2. For a finer jelly, use more veal and add beef or veal broth instead of water.

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
Breaks down during long stewing to give the stock body and rich flavour.
Knuckle or neck of veal
Its collagen dissolves into gelatin as it stews, helping the stock set into jelly.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Keep the stock at a gentle simmer. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and cloudy particles into the liquid, making the jelly murky. A slow, gentle simmer keeps it clear while the collagen slowly converts to gelatin.

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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