Why it works: Onion and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,646 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Cold Meat Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the gravy
Cook the pig's feet and calf's feet in a little water with salt, onions, spices, and lemon juice until done.
Strain the mixture through a sieve and save the gravy.
Cut the meat into small dice-shaped pieces.
Return the diced meat to the gravy to cook until well done.
Set and serve
Pour very cold water into a china dish, then empty the dish without drying it to prevent sticking.
Pour the meat and gravy into the wet dish, ensuring the meat is fully covered with gravy.
Let it stand until it is stiff.
Cut into slices and serve plain or with mayonnaise sauce.
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.
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Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,646 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pig's feet
- Provide collagen and gelatin that set the gravy into a firm jelly.
- Calf's feet
- Provide collagen and gelatin that set the gravy into a firm jelly.
- Meat (in the method)
- Forms the body of the dish, set in the jelly for a sliceable texture.
The step that matters
Pouring the meat and gravy into the wet dish. A dish that is not wet enough lets the jelly stick, making it hard to unmould cleanly. The meat must also be fully covered by gravy so that, as it cools, the gelatin binds the pieces together into a stiff, sliceable set.
“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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