Fragrant transparent jellied meat is a frequent guest at many holiday feasts and celebrations. For some, the main decoration of the holiday table is exotic dishes and tropical fruits. But many people prefer traditional, but no less tasty food, which includes jellied meat.
It is also often called jelly. However, not every young housewife will risk making jellied meat - the recipe is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. The process has its own nuances. In order for the jellied meat to turn out not only tasty, but also transparent, appetizing and simply beautiful, you must follow some rules for its preparation. Do not neglect these recommendations - and jelly will definitely become your signature dish, a real decoration for any festive feast.
- The first rule for preparing clear and tasty jellied meat is choosing a base for the dish. To cook jelly, you can use almost any meat of your choice - pork, beef, chicken or turkey. However, many experienced housewives recommend choosing beef.
- Since you can prepare beef jellied meat only from certain parts of the carcass, you need to take meat on the bone, a part of the drumstick that is located closer to the hoof, or a beef shank with veins, cartilage or skin. This choice is due to the fact that they contain special gelling agents that promote rapid solidification of the broth without the use of gelatin and do not make it cloudy in appearance. You can use one or several types of meat.
- When purchasing a meat kit for preparing jellied meat, be sure to ensure its freshness. If the beef has a specific “old” smell, small spots on the surface, visible traces of frequent freezing, defrosting, or too dark a color, it is better to refuse to purchase such a product, since it will not be possible to cook a tasty jellied meat from it.
- Be sure to ensure that the meat set has approximately the same content of pulp and bones. If there is too much beef pulp, the jellied meat simply will not harden. The same goes for too much bone content. Therefore, the most important thing is moderation in everything.
Preparation of products
- So, fresh meat has been selected for cooking jellied meat. Next, it needs to be properly prepared.
- The beef should be soaked - this helps get rid of traces of blood and provides a beautiful transparent base for the jellied meat. If the meat is not soaked, the broth will be cloudy and unappetizing. Place the beef in cold water and let it sit for a couple of hours before cooking the jellied meat.
- The recipe for any housewife is the same in that the meat must be completely covered with water, otherwise the remaining traces of blood and the hardness of the skin cannot be avoided. After soaking, you can safely start cutting. To do this, it is better to use a special butcher knife or a hacksaw with large sharp teeth - it can be used to saw through beef bones so that there are no small fragments.
- If you simply chop beef with a hatchet, you will definitely have sharp edges on the bones. Next, trim the meat with a knife, freeing it from bone fragments, and prepare other ingredients for preparing the dish.
Ingredients needed to make jelly
- Beef or meat set weighing from 2 to 4 kg.
- Clean cold water, preferably purified.
- Salt to taste (see below for information on when to salt jellied meat).
- 2-3 large onions.
- 2-4 large carrots.
- Garlic cloves – 6-8 pcs.
- Spices and herbs of your choice - bay leaf, black pepper, allspice, red pepper, parsley and celery root, dill.
The main stages of preparing jellied meat
- Place the prepared meat set in a saucepan and fill with clean cold water. It is better to choose purified or filtered water for preparing this dish. If you use regular tap water, there is a very high probability that the broth will appear cloudy. In addition, tap water has specific impurities that can give the finished jelly an unpleasant aftertaste.
- Water should be taken in a 1:2 ratio to meat - this means that for 1 kg of beef you will need 2 liters of purified cold water. Place the beef pieces very tightly so that the meat is completely covered with water. We put it on fire.
- Many experienced housewives recommend cooking jellied meat exclusively over low heat - this way you can get a crystal clear and transparent broth. If you cook it over high heat, there is a risk that it will become cloudy.
- After 20-30 minutes, as soon as the broth boils, you need to carefully collect all the foam on its surface. The foam will rise throughout the cooking process, so it is very important to carefully collect it regularly at all times. Thanks to this process, the broth will remain clear and beautiful to look at. Many famous chefs recommend not collecting the foam, but completely draining the first water in which the meat was cooked for jellied meat. Drain off all the water, and rinse the beef thoroughly under clean running water - this will clean the meat of any remaining foam and bone fragments.
How to achieve a transparent color in the finished dish?
A question that torments not only novice housewives: how to make jellied meat transparent? Everything is simple here.
- Place the washed parts of the meat set back into the pan and fill with water, grinding again if necessary. After which the pan can be put back on low heat. Now, if foam or fat appears on the surface of the broth, you can simply remove it with a slotted spoon.
- As mentioned above, jellied meat is cooked over low heat - which is why the entire process of preparing this dish can take from 5 to 10 hours. You should not increase the heat in an attempt to speed up the long cooking process - the broth will become cloudy, and your jellied meat will turn out unattractive and unappetizing. In addition, long-term cooking over low heat helps the finished jellied meat harden perfectly - you do not need to use gelatin or other substances.
Rules for adding spices and herbs
- After the jellied meat has been boiled under the lid for 4-5 hours, it is time to add spices and herbs. This happens until the moment when salting jellied meat (including beef) becomes necessary. These ingredients should not be added before the specified time - by the end of cooking they will lose their taste and characteristic spicy aroma.
- For jellied meat, it is recommended to use whole vegetables without chopping them. You can take carrots and other vegetables directly in their peels without peeling - just rinse them thoroughly under running water. If you don’t like this method, peel the vegetables, but don’t cut them into pieces. Many people add a whole unpeeled onion to the jelly being prepared - this trick helps give the broth a light golden hue.
- Garlic cloves can be placed in any form convenient for you - whole or chopped. At the same time, add various spices to the future jellied meat to your taste - black pepper, allspice, celery or parsley root, and bay leaf give the dish a special piquancy and incomparable taste. But in no case should you be too zealous with the amount of spices - the finished jellied meat has an incredibly delicate and refined taste, which can easily be spoiled by hot spices.
When should you salt beef jellied meat?
The basic rule for a tasty and appetizing dish is proper salting. When to salt jellied meat?
- Remember that the jellied meat must be salted 20-30 minutes before the end of its preparation. If you add salt to your dish earlier, the result will certainly disappoint you. Meat absorbs salt strongly. And even a small amount of it, poured at the beginning of cooking, can make your dish simply inedible.
- In addition, the broth must be simmered over low heat for at least 5 hours - during this time the water in the pan boils away greatly, so the concentration of salt in the broth becomes excessive. The best option for when to salt jellied meat is half an hour before the end of cooking.
Grind cooked meat correctly
- After the jellied meat is cooked, turn off the heat and carefully remove the cooked meat from the pan using a slotted spoon. Whole onions and carrots can also be harvested - they have already served their purpose. Cool the cooked meat slightly.
- Next, the cooked meat must be thoroughly chopped. This can be done simply with your hands or use a small knife, with which you carefully separate the pulp from the seeds and cartilage. Many people prefer to use a food processor or meat grinder to grind meat, but in the case of preparing jellied meat, it is better to avoid such methods, since with this method of grinding the finished dish loses its unique exquisite taste.
- Make sure that there are no small bones, skin or cartilage residues in the finished meat. Grind the garlic cloves through a press and mix them with the resulting meat. It is better not to cut the garlic with a knife, but to press it through a special press - this way it will mix better with the beef, and there will be no large, sloppy pieces.
Pouring cooked meat correctly
- Place chopped meat and mixed with garlic at the bottom of deep plates or trays. If you want to make your culinary creation brighter and more original, you can put pieces of boiled yolk or carrots, as well as any other products of your choice, on the bottom of the plates.
- The meat must be poured with the resulting salted broth (we have already mentioned when to salt jellied meat). To do this, it should be carefully strained through a fine sieve or gauze cloth folded in half. In this way, small pieces of cartilage and bones and excess fat are removed from the broth. As a result, it acquires an even, pure color and a pleasant shade.
- Heat the strained broth slightly in a saucepan over low heat and pour it into the molds with the cooked meat. If you use gelatin when preparing jellied meat, now is the time to add this ingredient to the broth. To do this, take a glass with already prepared and strained broth, dilute one packet of gelatin in it and add the resulting mixture to the rest of the broth before pouring it into the molds.
Freezing of jellied meat
It would seem that the most controversial issue for housewives is the question of when to salt jellied meat. But it is not so. There is one more stage in the preparation of this dish, which raises quite a lot of questions - freezing.
- For the jellied meat to completely harden, it takes quite a significant amount of time - from 4 to 10 hours. You can leave the molds with the aromatic meat dish for the whole night. In order for the cooked jellied meat to harden, it will need a cool temperature, which is below room temperature. You can leave the dish on the balcony or on the windowsill - but these places are completely unsuitable in the winter season. At low temperatures, delicate jelly left on the balcony will simply freeze and completely lose its unsurpassed delicate taste. The best option for quickly and efficiently freezing jellied meat is the refrigerator.
- It is better not to place dishes with beef jellied meat on the top shelf of the refrigerator - as you know, this is the lowest temperature zone, and your meat delicacy will simply freeze. It is not recommended to place molds with beef jelly on the lower shelves of the refrigerator - here, on the contrary, it will not harden. The best choice would be the middle shelf with optimal temperature conditions.
So, you have learned how to properly prepare and when to salt jellied meat. And everything was done according to the recipe. Now your culinary masterpiece is ready, but what to serve it with? The traditional answer to this question is various hot sauces, mustard, horseradish or adjika. You can serve a delicate meat dish with a small amount of soy sauce - it will give the jellied meat a special piquancy. A very tasty combination would be jelly served with pickled mushrooms or cucumbers, fresh or canned tomatoes, and a fresh vegetable salad with herbs of your choice.
The most important nuances
To make beef jellied meat truly tasty and appetizing, follow a few simple rules for its preparation.
- The basic rule on how to make jellied meat transparent is to never add water to meat that is already being cooked. If you add a new portion of water to the broth during the cooking process, it will lose its beautiful transparent color and become cloudy. In addition, such a broth almost never hardens without the addition of gelatin. In this case, it is best to immediately pour a little more water into the pan with beef than you need - when it boils, the required amount of broth will remain, and its color will not be affected at all.
- Let's repeat when to salt jellied meat during cooking. When preparing tender meat delicacies, you should not do this at the beginning or middle of the process. When cooking, the broth boils away and becomes richer, and the salt concentration increases significantly. That is why even a small pinch thrown into a pan of jelly at the beginning of cooking can make it over-salted and inedible.
- Many people do not like the specific fatty taste that ready-made jellied beef or pork can have. A simple method helps to avoid such an unpleasant phenomenon - be sure to drain the first water in which the meat was cooked. This way you will not only remove excess fat from the meat broth, but also make the finished dish less high in calories and heavy on the stomach.
- You should not try to put 10 kg of various meat products into a pan with broth. Remember that the water in the pan should cover the meat by at least 2-3 cm. This is necessary in order to obtain the required amount of clean and aromatic broth. If there is initially too much water in the pan, it will not boil away during the cooking process, and the broth will not solidify well. At the same time, if you add too little water, the opposite problem will arise - it will quickly boil away and you will have to add a new portion of water to the pan. In this case, you cannot avoid the appearance of an unpleasant cloudy tint in the finished meat dish.
- 5-10 hours - this is how long you need to cook jellied meat. The recipe does not tolerate haste and sloppiness.
- Many experienced housewives recommend not throwing away the meat cartilage and skins that you take out after finishing cooking the beef. Grind these products thoroughly using a knife, meat grinder or food processor, then carefully mix the resulting mixture with the cooked beef. As you know, the cartilage and veins contain special gelling substances that contribute to the rapid hardening of the finished jellied meat without the use of gelatin. At the same time, the taste of the delicate dish does not deteriorate at all.
And finally
Since cooking delicious jellied meat is a painstaking task and requires a certain skill, you should not be upset if your first jellied meat did not turn out quite as you expected. A little culinary practice and patience - and your dish will become the main decoration of any holiday table.
How to cook jellied meat step by step recipe in a regular saucepan
5 (100%) 1 vote[s]In order to prepare transparent jellied meat, you must remember
A few simple rules, following which you can easily create this culinary masterpiece.
Rule 1.
Choosing the main ingredient - meat.
You can make jellied meat from any meat (chicken, pork,
beef, pork feet, etc.), the most important thing is to choose the right one
main product.
It is best to buy such an important component in jellied meat as meat at
market, because there it is guaranteed not to be frozen.
Pork legs, which are the key to the solidification of the dish, must be thoroughly cleaned of bristles, and, if necessary, burned over a fire, then washed. You can add any meat you like.
Whether it will be chicken, beef or the same pork jellied meat is up to the housewife, but pork legs (to be more specific - the part that ends with the hooves) are absolutely necessary, then no gelatin will be needed.
If the meat has skin on it, this will also play a good role in
hardening of the jelly. The size of the pieces of meat for jellied meat does not play a big role.
The brisket and drumstick can be cut into several parts, and large and
Leave the central bone entirely. In order to avoid small
bones, pork legs need to be cut in half lengthwise, and then again
in half along the joint.
But, oddly enough, you can’t overdo it with meat. Necessary
maintain certain proportions, otherwise there is a risk that
the dish still won’t harden: several pig’s feet weigh
approximately 700 grams can be taken no more than one and a half kilos
other meat components.
Rule 2.
Meat must be soaked before cooking. This procedure is necessary for
in order to remove any remaining coagulated blood from the meat. Besides
The skin will be much softer and more tender after soaking.
Taking a pan and placing the meat ingredients in it, you need to completely soak them in cold water and leave them for several hours (or better yet, overnight). In the morning, you can rinse the meat again, carefully scrape the pork legs to remove sooty areas.
Also peel the skin on the remaining meat components. A small “vegetable” knife is suitable for this task like nothing else. Then you can place the meat in the cauldron and start cooking.
Rule 3.
The first water needs to be drained! The conviction of some housewives that
that removing scale with a slotted spoon will completely solve all problems is not entirely correct.
It is better to drain the first water after cooking meat, because along with it
All excess fat and other unwanted components will be removed.
Moreover, the appearance of such jellied meat will be much more attractive, its calorie content will noticeably decrease, and the smell will become much more pleasant.
Ideally, you can drain the second water, then the jelly will be clean and transparent, like a baby’s tear.
After draining the broth, you need to rinse the contents of the cauldron under running water, which will remove small adhering remnants of coagulated protein. After this, you can put the meat back for final cooking.
The amount of water should be about 2 centimeters above the meat level. If the amount of water is greater, it will not boil away as expected. Therefore, the jelly may not freeze. If there is less water, then during the cooking process it will be necessary to add it from the kettle, which will also not have a very favorable effect on the final result.
It is also necessary to take into account that in order for the jellied meat to turn out transparent, the contents of the cauldron should not be allowed to boil. You need to cook the jelly on low heat for about 6 hours, and then the result will exceed all expectations.
Rule 4.
Spices and seasonings also have their turn.
After 5 hours have passed since the start of cooking, you can add a whole onion and carrots to the broth. If you do this earlier, then all the “delights” from adding these ingredients will disappear along with the boiled water.
Salt should also be added to the jellied meat after 4-5 hours, because in the process
boiling water, the broth becomes more concentrated, and there is
there is a possibility of simply over-salting the dish.
It is better to add allspice, bay leaf and other spices to taste about thirty minutes before the end of cooking, then the bouquet of aromas will win the hearts of even the most scrupulous critics.
Rule 5.
How long does it take to cook jellied meat?
Jellied pork (pork legs, knuckles) 5-6 hours;
Chicken jellied meat 3-4 hours;
Beef jellied meat 7-8 hours.
But it’s best to cook jellied meat from assorted meats, then it will turn out
more tasty and rich.
Rule 6.
The bones are removed by hand, not with a meat grinder.
After the jelly has finished cooking, it is necessary to remove the meat from
pots. The easiest way to do this is with a slotted spoon. The broth needs to be strained through a colander, or better yet, through a clean cloth, removing the onion, carrot, peppercorns and bay leaf.
The slightly cooled meat must be carefully sorted with your hands, separating it from the bones (you can help yourself with a small knife).
It is better to cut the meat by hand rather than using a meat grinder, as this will ensure that even the smallest bones, which are very easy to break teeth on, will not end up on the plate of any of the guests.
It is better not to throw away the skins and cartilage, because they will give the jellied meat strength.
At the bottom of the plate in which the jellied meat will freeze, you can put greens or cut out various figures from carrots - this will be a wonderful decoration for such an interesting dish. After this, having laid out the meat mass in the prepared container, you can fill it with broth.
Rule 7.
The right temperature is the key to success. Best place for
It’s not the window sill or even the cold balcony that allows the jellied meat to harden.
The most “correct” temperature for jelly is on the middle shelf
refrigerator.
After all, if the jellied meat is not cold enough, it will not harden, but if,
on the contrary, if it freezes, it will lose all its wonderful taste
quality. This culinary masterpiece will harden within 5-6 hours.
Rule 8.
If the jelly has not frozen (Jellied meat with gelatin).
If the jellied meat has not frozen, there is no need to worry. The dish can be easily saved by pouring it back into a clean pan and boiling for a few minutes. Next, you need to dilute the gelatin in a separate container according to the instructions on the package (the dosage should be found there).
Pour gelatin into jellied meat and mix well, pour into plates. After this procedure, the jelly will definitely harden, there is no doubt about it.
Jellied meat recipe
To prepare delicious jellied meat you will need the following products:
Pork knuckle weighing about a kilogram;
0.5 kg pork;
One onion;
2-3 bay leaves;
5-6 peas of allspice;
2-4 cloves of garlic;
2.5 liters of water;
Preparation of jellied meat:
1. Prepare the meat: rinse and add water, soak for a couple of hours.
After this, clean the shank well and cut it into two parts.
2. Pour cold water into the pan and place all the meat in it.
3. After boiling, drain the first broth and add 2.5 liters to the meat
cold water.
4. Bring to a boil and reduce heat as much as possible (so that the broth is barely
was boiling). Cook the jellied meat for 5 hours.
6. Remove the meat from the pan, and put the garlic crushed with a knife blade into the broth.
7. Divide the meat into small pieces. Strain the broth through a fine sieve or clean cloth.
8. Place meat in jellied meat molds and fill with broth. Let it harden (preferably in the refrigerator on the middle shelf).
9. Serve the jelly, first garnished with herbs, with mustard or
horseradish.
Quick tips for preparing jellied meat
Based on all of the above, we can formulate several basic tips that will help you prepare jelly correctly, and most importantly tasty.
1. The meat must be fresh.
2. To make the jellied meat freeze better, it is better to use pork knuckle or animal legs for cooking.
3. In order for the jelly to taste good, the meat must first be
soak in cold water.
4. It is better to drain the first broth.
5. Spices and seasonings should be added shortly before the end of cooking.
jellied meat to preserve their flavor.
6. Meat bones must be carefully selected by hand.
7. Jellied meat should freeze at the right temperature - medium
refrigerator shelf.
8. If the jelly is not frozen, you can simply add gelatin after boiling the jelly.
9. Do not add too much water, as the jellied meat may not
freeze. Too little water is also not a good option.
10. You need to salt the jellied meat at the end of cooking so as not to oversalt the dish.
That's all, the jelly is ready, and there is nothing super complicated. All you need is
carefully select the meat, and pay careful attention to its cooking, and then
jellied meat is doomed to success!
We wish you bon appetit!
Hello))
I must say that this dish is very suitable for both the Christmas and Easter tables.
They turn out very tasty, exactly the way my family likes them - sweet, heavy and, due to this, do not go stale for a long time.
Since the Easter table must have meat dishes, and in a wide assortment (as one of the options), I propose to prepare a dish very suitable for this holiday - jellied meat.
I love to cook it for Christmas and Easter because it is a dish “with history”, without which the traditional Russian table cannot do, so it is perfect for such holidays.
Not only is jellied food very tasty, but it is also healthy, especially for those who have problems with joints. For example, crunching in the joints often occurs due to “wrong” collagen, and in this case it is worth eating jellied meat, which contains elements of adhesive lubricant.
So let's prepare))
They often say that cooking jellied meat is long and difficult... well, I disagree - it’s easy to prepare, it just takes a long time to cook, and it cooks almost without our participation 😉
First, I’ll give you a short cooking recipe, and if you need more detailed instructions, then later in the article you can read in detail about how to cook jellied meat from pork knuckle and chicken.
Recipe for jellied pork legs, shanks and chicken
We will need for a 5-liter saucepan.
- Pork feet – 1 piece
- Pork knuckle – 1 piece
- Meat (pork, beef - whatever you like) - 400 grams (the amount depends on how meaty your shank is, you may not need additional meat)
- Chicken meat (optional) – 400 grams
- Carrots – 1 piece
- Onion – 1 piece
- Garlic - 1–2 heads
- Pepper
- Bay leaf
- Allspice
Recipe
Wash the knuckle and legs well, add water, put on fire, when it boils, drain the water, rinse and put it back to cook.
30 minutes after boiling, add meat - beef or pork, or both.
After 2.5 hours - chicken, onions, carrots, salt, pepper. Cook covered for another 1 hour.
When the meat is well separated from the bones, remove it and disassemble it into small pieces. Place chopped garlic on the bottom of the mold and pour in the strained broth. Let it harden.
Jellied pork knuckle, recipe with photos step by step, without gelatin
Now the recipe is more detailed, since there are always subtleties when preparing jellied meat.
In order for the jellied meat to freeze well, you need the right set of meat products.
Using gelatin to prepare jellied meat is blasphemous 😉
Since I cook the jellied meat in a 5-liter saucepan (the most optimal volume for us at the moment), I give the food consumption accordingly; if necessary, you increase it, or decrease it, although there’s no way to reduce it))
Mandatory ingredients are pork leg and pork knuckle. By and large, you can make a replacement with only two legs or only two shanks, but it is the combination of leg + shank that I like the most - it’s tasty and freezes well. Therefore, further on how to cook jellied pork knuckle and legs.
A set of meat products for jellied meat looks like this (though the photo is not very clear).
My least favorite part of the cooking process is preparing the meat products.
It is often advised to soak the drumsticks and legs in water for several hours or overnight, but I use the advice on preparing food from the mother of my former colleague, and I must say Oksanina’s mother cooks very tasty))
Fill the drumsticks and legs with cold water for 15 minutes, drain the water, fill it again, let it stand for 15 minutes, now drain the water and clean and scrape the meat products with a knife or a special brush.
Now fill the leg and shank with water and put the pan on the fire. As soon as the water boils, we drain it, rinse the food and the pan and set it to cook for a long time (do not add meat yet).
The water should cover the meat products by about five centimeters.
There are several reasons to drain the first broth:
The broth is not so greasy (for those who care about this);
And more transparent.
The broth boiled, we skimmed off the foam and let it cook on low! heat under the lid for 30 minutes, now add the meat (pork/beef).
The size of the pieces is not important and there is no need to bother, put in one or two large pieces.
We turn on a small fire so that the water boils slightly, cover with a lid and leave for 2.5 hours to do our own thing. During this time, the drumsticks and meat will boil well.
Let me remind you that if you want to get a clear broth and, accordingly, jellied meat, do not let the broth boil too much.
Actually, you can absolutely do without this ingredient, but I think it tastes better with chicken, so I always add it.
We wait until the broth boils after adding the chicken and until the foam appears, which we skim off, then add the whole onion, carrots, salt, pepper, spices and cook for another 1 hour.
By this time, the meat that was on the bone should easily separate from it, and the apartment should have a breathtaking and even some kind of festive aroma in the air))
Now the broth must be strained so that there are no bones or meat left in it. I simply throw everything into a colander; if the broth is required to be particularly transparent, then I line the colander with gauze; if transparency is not important, then I don’t line it.
While the meat is cooling, press the garlic using a garlic press (or cut into small pieces) and place it in molds.
We take the meat into small pieces, it comes apart very easily, and we also put it into molds.
Pour broth on top of everything.
If you are worried in advance about the age-old question of “whether it will harden or not,” drop some broth on your thumb and forefinger, press them together and you will feel how they stick together.
My jellied meat tried to take on the proper form while still being poured into molds; the photo shows that the broth, left unattended in the pan for a short time, began to be covered with a gelling film on top.
I pour the jellied meat into molds that are actually intended for this purpose. And, plus, in storage containers that are tightly closed with a lid, jellied meat in such forms is very convenient to pass on as a treat.
Let the jellied meat cool on the table, then put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours, it’s most convenient to do this at night, there is less chance that they will start eating it before it has frozen properly 😉
Of course, if you wish, you can add dill, parsley, and boiled carrots to the molds, but I like jellied meat without additives. In itself, by the way, it is also very beautiful and self-sufficient.
Classic of the genre - jellied meat with horseradish))
True, the horseradish turned out to be “unphotogenic” (or the photographer is like that)) and for some reason it turned out to be an unusual color, although in reality it looked quite decent and perfectly complemented the jellied meat.
In general, next to aspic, this is not raspberry jam 😉
I hope that you will be satisfied with the result of the preparation, try it - it’s not as difficult as it seems, and most importantly it’s delicious :)