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Clear Savory Jelly

A clear gelatin made from calf's feet, veal knuckle, lean ham, onions, carrots, herbs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clear Savory Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the calf's feet, knuckle of veal, lean ham, onions, carrots, and herbs in a gallon of water.

  2. Reduce the mixture by more than half.

  3. Strain the liquid to remove solids and let it cool.

Set and use

  1. Once cooled, it will set into a jelly.

  2. To use, melt gently in a pan of boiling water and brush onto meat.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet
Provide gelatin, which lets the cooled liquid set into a jelly.
Knuckle of veal
Adds collagen-rich body and savory depth to the stock.
Lean ham
Contributes savory, salty flavor to the stock.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Reducing the mixture by more than half. Simmering concentrates the gelatin and flavor from the bones and meats. If the liquid is too thin, it will not set firmly once cooled.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Carrotthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion. 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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