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A Cheaper Meat Jelly

A gelatinous broth made by slow boiling calf's foot, veal or beef, onion, carrot, parsley, spice, ham, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

A Cheaper Meat Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine the calf's foot, veal or beef, onion, carrot, parsley, spice, and ham in a pot.

  2. Add 5 half pints of water and boil very slowly for 5 to 6 hours.

  3. For a stronger jelly, add more ham or bones from unboiled meat, poultry, or game.

  4. Use the cooking liquid from fowl or veal instead of water if available.

Make the glaze

  1. To make glaze, boil strong, clear gravy or jelly down to a thin cream consistency.

  2. Watch and stir the glaze constantly to prevent burning.

  3. When it thickens and jellies from the spoon, pour it out immediately.

  4. Melt the glaze gently in a pan of boiling water when ready to use.

  5. Brush it onto the meat to form a clear varnish.

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot
Adds gelatin from bones and connective tissue, which sets the cooking liquid into a jelly.
Neck of veal or beef
Contributes meat flavor and body to the cooking liquid during the long simmer.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty flavor, and more ham gives a stronger jelly.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor to the stock as it simmers.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Watch and stir the glaze constantly. Reduced gelatin-rich liquid scorches easily as it thickens, and burnt flavor or color ruins the clear varnish. Stirring keeps heat even.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, parsley, ham. 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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