New Year is approaching! The old one will end, we will spend it as expected, and ...
New Year is approaching! The old one will end, we will spend it as expected, and we will meet the New as it happens. Traditionally, we will set a rich table with various delicious dishes and equally tasty drinks.
Traditionally ... What is traditional with us, then? AND?
As my good friend says, from the snacks on the table on New Year's Eve, there should be Olivier and jellied meat with horseradish. And everything else is self-indulgence and an inappropriate tribute to someone else's fashion.
To be honest, I don't remember the New Year and Christmas meetings without jellied meat. This is blasphemy or something.
We call jellied meat "cold", rarely when "jellied". In Russia, especially in the western regions, in the Urals - "jelly". Or simply " ". For a long time I tried to understand how jelly differs from jellied meat. They say that this is the same thing. Maybe. But our jellied meat is made from a pig. Or from pork legs, drumsticks. Rarely are beef hooves or shanks added. And, judging by the collections of recipes, jelly is usually made from beef: hooves, shanks, head.
The age-old question when boiling jellied meat will "freeze or not", since adding gelatin is a sign of bad taste.
Jokes, jokes, always freezes. Even if there is no beef component. And how can jelly from pork legs not freeze if a spoon is calmly floating in a boiling brew?
The process of preparing high-quality jellied meat is very laborious and time-consuming, especially if it is a dish made from pork legs. How to cook jellied meat? I will answer - a long time.
Jelly. Step by step recipe
Ingredients (6-8 plates)
- Pork legs 2 pcs
- Pork drumstick 1 pc
- Beef 1-1.2 kg
- Carrot 1 pc
- Parsley root 1 pc
- Onion 1 pc
- Garlic 1 head
- Black peppercorns, allspice, bay leaf, salt taste
- Considering that the family loves a lot of meat in jellied meat, cold pork is not particularly welcome at home. We have to add veal.
- We have never added chicken or poultry in general to our dish.
- Historically, transparent jellied meat is considered not particularly honorable in our country.
- It is better to buy meat at the bazaar. There it is guaranteed not to be frozen.
Pork legs, drumstick and beef
- Thoroughly clean the legs and shins from stubble, if necessary, grease over an open fire. Clean and rinse.
- Cut the pork legs in half lengthwise with a knife, and again in half along the joint. Chopping with an ax is not worth it, there will be many small bones.
- Cut the lower leg into several parts, the large central bone can be left intact, not chopped.
- Cut the brisket into several parts.
- Strictly speaking, the size of pieces of meat for jellied meat is not important.
- All meat must be washed and soaked in cold water for at least 2-3 hours, and it is better to leave it overnight in a cold place. The second option is preferable because jelly takes a long time to prepare, and it is better to start in the morning.
All meat must be cut, rinsed and soaked in cold water
- In the morning, rinse the meat again, put it in a saucepan or cauldron, pour cold water. The water should be 5-7 cm higher than the meat level.
- Put the saucepan on fire and bring to a boil.
Put the saucepan on the fire and bring to a boil
- It is important not to miss the boiling point. There will be a lot of foam. It must be removed. Use a spoon to collect all the foam that is continuously formed. After 5-10 minutes, foaming will stop completely. From this point on, cover the pan and reduce the heat to the very minimum. The liquid in the pan should not even boil, but "move" a little. Under no circumstances should it boil violently. Only a slight boil.
- Leave the meat to simmer for 4-5 hours. However, you can sometimes mix. Do not add water to the pan !!! Even if it partially boils away.
Cook jellied meat for a long time on low heat
- After 4-5 hours, add black and allspice peas, bay leaves, 1 tsp into the pan. rock salt and washed unpeeled onions, carrots, parsley and celery roots.
Vegetables for broth and garlic
- If the liquid has boiled away a lot, you will have to add boiling water from the kettle. Although not good, fluid is needed.
Add onion, roots and spices
- Cover the pan with a lid and cook, with a low boil, for another 1-1.5 hours.
Boiled broth for jellied meat - cools down
- Remove the pan from the heat. Select all the meat with a slotted spoon. Arrange the meat on plates and allow to cool. Onions, carrots, roots - discard, although carrots can be left for decoration.
Select all the meat with a slotted spoon
- Small digression. Many people prefer a completely transparent jelly. For this, the broth must be clarified. How? Look for yourself, they say that egg white is good. I will not say that I got transparent as glass, let's say - the transparency of amber. And without clarification.
- Salt the broth to taste and a little more. It should seem a little salty, just a little bit. Season with black pepper and add garlic, chopped to a gruel. Stir the broth, cover the pan and leave for 20-30 minutes
- Then strain the broth. It is better to do this through a cloth that is naturally clean. The fabric will filter out small bones, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves. All this is superfluous in the jelly. Leave the broth to cool. After 10-15 minutes, remove excess fat from the broth surface. You can just collect it with a spoon.
It is necessary to remove fat from the surface of the broth
- Or you can use a napkin. An ordinary paper napkin thrown on the surface of the broth is covered with a film of fat, removed and discarded. If you repeat this several times, you can almost completely remove the grease film from the surface. Oh, by the way, leave some fat, then the surface of the finished jellied meat will be with "frost".
- You can make a test that will answer the question "freeze or not." Place a drop of broth on your index finger and thumb, and make sure your fingers stick together well. If they do not stick together, then you cooked cold from bouillon cubes.
- Sort the cooled meat with your hands, separating and discarding all the bones. This is important, since a tooth can be easily broken against a bone. Meat can be cut into small pieces, can be divided into fibers, can be used as is, in pieces.
- Prepare a few deep bowls or jelly trays. It is very convenient to use large rectangular enamel containers, like a trough, or deep soup bowls.
- At the bottom of each plate, you can put parsley, a slice of hard-boiled egg, carrots extracted from the broth.
Arrange the meat in tins
- Place the meat on a plate. A lot is better and tastier.
- Pour over the cooled broth so that the meat is completely or almost completely covered with broth.
In the old days, jellied meat was cooked from beef legs and head. It was a method of disposing of those parts of cow / veal carcass that were completely unsuitable for other dishes. Now we have the opportunity to put anything in the jelly. But in order for the broth to freeze without gelatin, you still need to use legs, shanks, tails - they impart viscosity and stickiness to the liquid. Veins, cartilage, skin, skin contribute to the solidification of the broth.
In addition to the legs, you can use almost any meat that you do not mind cooking for a long time. Pork shank, chicken, beef rim work well. Jellied meat is made entirely from poultry, but then it is necessary that there must be legs, chicken legs, and also that the chicken is not a store-bought young and white (the broth will not freeze with it), but homemade, nondescript, bony. Old roosters are good for chicken aspic.
There shouldn't be too much meat
If there is a lot of meat, it will not help the broth freeze. You need to keep the proportions. One part of the legs is about two parts of the rest of the meat.
Soak is a must
Before cooking jellied meat, and primarily the legs and tails, must be soaked. That is, they must first be rinsed, the legs must be scraped, if they need to be scorched, and then filled with cold water and left for several hours. This procedure will remove blood clots from the meat.
How much water to pour
After soaking, drain the water and refill the meat with cold water. But there shouldn't be too much of it. The water should be about the width of your hand above the meat level. And the fact that it is cold is also important. This will make the broth tastier.
Drain the first water
Bring everything to a boil and drain the water. This will make the broth clear. Then once again rinse the legs and everything else. Pour cold water again and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove foam, dodge fire to a minimum.
The slower the better
No wonder jellied meat was previously cooked in the oven. At a temperature of about 90 degrees, the meat slowly languished and gave everything to the water, so the jellied meat turned out to be fragrant, rich, and perfectly solidified. Now we cook jellied meat on the stove (you can cook jellied meat in a slow cooker, where it languishes like in an oven), but on the smallest fire. So that he just gurgles quietly. And we remove the foam all the time. Fat can also be skimmed off if you don't like a thin white greasy layer on the surface of the finished jellied meat. By the way, it can be removed from a ready-made, already frozen jellied meat.
Important!Jellied meat is boiled for at least 6 hours, and better - 8 hours.
What else to put
Onion, peeled from the first layer of husk, a couple of carrots. Of course, peppercorns and bay leaves. All those products that make meat broths tastier. But we do not put them right away, but closer to the end of cooking. Carrots and onions - about two hours, and peppers and other spices - about half an hour.
When to salt
Not earlier than an hour before the jellied meat is ready, because the water is slowly boiling away and there is a danger of oversalting the jelly. Many people salt jellied meat after it has been cooked. In this case, you need to put a little more salt, taking into account the fact that the meat will absorb it.
After cooking
When the jellied meat is turned off, you can add salt, add crushed garlic to the broth and let it stand and rest for about 20 minutes. And then start parsing the jellied meat: separate the meat from bones and cartilage.
Parsing of jellied meat and filling in forms
When the jellied meat is cooked, the meat is removed from the broth with a slotted spoon. It is removed from the bones, separated from the cartilage, and the skin is selected. All meat is cut into small pieces. It is often recommended to add finely-finely chopped cartilage to the meat, so the jellied meat will be denser.
Try to choose peppercorns and bay leaves from the meat.
Arrange the meat in molds and trays, and strain the broth and pour over the meat. You can stir, or you can leave the meat below so that there is a layer of jelly above it.
Registration
On the festive table, jellied meat looks great, served in portions - for each guest. Meat and broth for such a jellied meat is poured and laid out in small portioned molds, and it is good to put decorations on the bottom of the mold: sprigs of herbs, carrot circles, half an egg, etc. When you take out the jellied meat on a plate, the decorations will be on top.
Jellied meat, frozen in a bottle, looks great, it can be cut into large circles, like a roll. To get such a round jelly, you need to pour the meat and broth into a plastic bottle with a cut off top and let the dish freeze. Then pour hot water over the bottle and remove the jellied meat.
You can also use tins for cakes and pastries with ribbed walls for jellied meat - it will turn out beautifully and original.
If you want to decorate the jellied meat, then you can boil carrots and other vegetables separately, those that were cooked with meat, most likely have lost their marketable appearance.
The last stage is solidification
First, the jellied meat is cooled at room temperature. And then he needs a very low plus - about 1-2 degrees. It is impossible to freeze jellied meat, it will lose its tenderness and softness, and it will also lose its taste. So the jellied meat is sent to the refrigerator, approximately in the middle.
Escort
The classic sauce for serving jellied meat is grated horseradish. You can buy it in the store, or you can make it yourself if you have horseradish root at hand (grate, add a little sugar, salt and vinegar, quite often this sauce is also diluted with water). Table horseradish can be with the addition of beets, very fragrant horseradish is obtained with sour grated apples, and if you add mashed tomatoes to horseradish, you get a Siberian horseradish.
Also, an irreplaceable companion of jellied meat is mustard. Of course, Russian, zaboristaya, not sweetish French.
Pork leg aspic
1 kg of pork legs
2 carrots
2 onions
Black peppercorns
2-3 bay leaves
Salt
Step 1. Wash the pork legs and scrape, singe, remove the hooves. Soak for 3-4 hours.
Step 2. Fill the legs with water so that it covers them by 5 cm and put on high heat, bring to a boil.
Step 3. Drain the water and pour in a new one, bring it to a boil again, remove the foam, put it on low heat. Cook for about 8 hours.
Step 4. An hour and a half before the end of cooking, put peeled carrots and onions in the peel. After another 40 minutes, add pepper and bay leaf.
Step 5. Remove the meat and vegetables with a slotted spoon. Throw out vegetables. And separate the meat from bones and cartilage, finely chop. Arrange in forms.
Step 6. Strain the broth and pour the meat into the molds. Cool at room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours until solidification.
Jellied meat in a slow cooker
2 pork legs
2 chicken legs
2.5 l of water
1 onion
½ head of garlic
Salt
Peppercorns
Step 1. Rinse the legs, clean and soak for 2-3 hours.
Step 2. Chop the chicken into pieces (the chicken leg can be cut into three pieces).
Step 3. Peel the onion, put meat and onion, spices and salt in the multicooker bowl, add water to the maximum.
Step 4. Put on the stewing mode, the longer the better, it is convenient to leave the multicooker overnight.
Step 5. When the jelly is cooked, take out the meat, remove it from the bones and cut into small pieces.
Step 6. Add garlic cloves crushed with a knife to the broth. They are brewed while we are engaged in meat. Taste and salt if needed.
Step 7. Put the meat in tins, filling them in half or two thirds. Pour over the strained broth. Cool at room temperature, and then refrigerate.
Aspic appeared quite by accident. Once people noticed that if you cook meat broth for a very long time, it freezes in the cold. The French immediately appreciated the new appetizer, and gradually the dish took root in other countries. At first, jellied meat and jelly were different dishes. Jellied meat was prepared from pork or pork and beef broth with pieces of meat and poultry, and jelly was cooked exclusively from beef. Now it is practically the same dish, which is called jelly in the north and north-west of Russia and aspic - in the southern and southeastern regions. Jellied meat is a separate dish, as it is prepared differently from jellied meat and jelly. Let's talk about how to properly cook jellied meat and aspic to make them tasty, beautiful and mouth-watering.
How to cook jelly: choose meat and cook delicious broth
All housewives know how to cook jellied meat from beef and pork so that it freezes well without gelatin - you need to take pork and beef legs, marrow bones, heads, tails, pork ears and parts of carcasses that are not suitable for other dishes. Suitable veins, cartilage, bones, skin, moss, chicken legs, wings, necks and heads, which, due to their high collagen content, make the broth sticky, viscous and jelly-like.
If chicken jelly is prepared, it should not be store-bought, but homemade - not very fleshy and bony. Cockerel broth and game are excellent gels. In addition, pork shank, beef tenderloin, turkey and chicken can be added to the dish as a meat base. The meat should not be too fatty, as the fat prevents the jellied meat from freezing.
Naturally, meat products are of high quality and fresh. Legs, shanks, legs are thoroughly washed, cleaned and soaked for at least one hour. After that, the legs are poured with cold water, brought to a boil, then drained and the pot with meat is refilled with water. This is done to make the broth clear and less greasy.
The ideal ratio of water to meat is 2: 1, and the water should be cold - this will make the broth even tastier and more appetizing. As soon as the broth boils, the fire is reduced to a minimum and cooked for 5-7 hours, in some cases - up to 12 hours. The cooking time depends on the meat used, the required amount of jellied meat and the recipe. How much to cook is a significant question, because the longer it is cooked, the more saturated, thick and rich the jelly will be. If the jellied meat does not freeze well, it means that there was too much liquid or you added it to the pan during cooking. In this case, the jelly will have to be boiled or gelatin added.
How to cook beef, pork and chicken aspic: next steps
2 hours before cooking, put onion, carrots, celery and parsley root in the broth, and 40 minutes before the end of cooking - bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, dill umbrellas and other spices. Or you can put spices along with the meat to make the jelly more aromatic. Peeling onions sometimes leaves the middle and bottom layers of husks to keep the broth nice and golden.
Jellied meat is salted after the broth is ready, otherwise there is a high probability of oversalting the dish - the water constantly boils away. In addition, salt inhibits the gelling process. Salt the hot broth so that it seems slightly salty, otherwise it will be too bland when frozen. Chopped garlic is placed in the finished broth and the dish is allowed to brew for about 20 minutes. After that, the meat is carefully separated from bones and cartilage, vegetables are removed from the broth, and the liquid is filtered. Some housewives add chopped cartilage to the meat to make the jelly denser and more satisfying.
Pieces of meat are laid out in a large mold, poured over with broth and left for some time at room temperature. You can pour the liquid into small portioned molds - they look very impressive on the festive table. Slices of carrots, slices of pickled cucumber, green leaves or half an egg are placed on the bottom of the molds - the decoration will end up on top and will look very impressive.
It is better to cool and bring the dish to readiness on the middle shelf of the refrigerator, and the jelly usually freezes as much as it was cooked. It is best to remove the congealed fat from the finished jellied meat if you have not removed it earlier. Before serving the dish, the molds with jelly are dipped in hot water for a few seconds and turned over on a plate, and this spicy appetizer with grated horseradish and hot mustard is served.
How to cook jellied meat with gelatin
Sometimes there is no time to cook according to all the rules, and besides, beef and chicken jelly does not always emit enough gelling substances, so many want to know how to proceed so that the dish still freezes. Gelatin comes to the rescue, which is made from the bones, tendons and hooves of cattle, so with the help of this unique product you can get delicious jellied meat with less time.
30 g of gelatin is usually taken per liter of liquid, which is pre-soaked, and then dissolved in a small amount of warm or cold broth after straining. A thin stream of liquid is poured into a saucepan and slightly heated, not boiling. In all other respects, the technology for making jellied meat does not differ from the classic recipe.
Clear broth - easy!
Never boil frozen meat broth - it will turn out to be too cloudy, no egg white will help. First, the meat and bones are thawed, washed well, and then boiled. The first water is drained for the same reason - so that the jellied meat turns out to be light and without impurities.
To obtain a transparent broth, they do not allow it to boil very much, do not stir during the cooking process, and the foam must be removed. The broth should be well filtered, since it often turns out cloudy due to the fact that it has not been sufficiently cleaned of all kinds of impurities. There is another secret of transparent jellied meat - toss a pinch of citric acid into the broth until it boils.
If preventive measures do not help, the strained broth is clarified with lemon juice (½ tsp.) Or egg white. For a liter of ready-made broth, one whipped protein is enough, which is added to the broth, after which the liquid is thoroughly cleaned through gauze folded in several layers.
How to cook aspic from meat and fish
Jellied meat is a lightweight version of jelly and jellied meat, since it is prepared from lean types of meat (beef, veal, tongue, chicken, turkey) and fish. Jellied preparation is simple and easy, and gelatin is used to solidify the broth.
Boil meat or poultry in accordance with all the rules for preparing meat broth. Next, the dish is cooled, the meat is separated from the bones, disassembled into fibers or cut into pieces. The broth is filtered, and the gelatin is poured with water to swell - while the proportions of broth and gelatin depend on the amount of meat. It is recommended to adhere to the ratio indicated in the recipe. Gelatin is poured into the broth and heated, but not boiled, otherwise the aspic will not thicken.
For fish aspic, any kind of fish is used, the most important thing is to carefully remove the bones so that there are no unpleasant surprises during the tasting process. And of course, aspic is unlikely to please the eye if instead of beautiful pieces it contains minced fish. Therefore, they usually use more dense fish that does not fall apart during cooking - pollock, mackerel, pike, pink salmon and representatives of the salmon family. Fish heads, tails and fins are placed in the broth, it is they who make it thick and rich, but it is better to remove the gills because of the bitterness. Fish broth is boiled with the addition of vegetables and spices, bones are removed, filtered and gelatin is injected. Pieces of bright vegetables are laid out in a jellied container and filled with liquid.
Recipe: jellied meat in a slow cooker
Rinse two pork legs and soak for 3 hours. Chop two chicken legs into pieces, put the meat in a slow cooker along with one peeled onion, half a head of garlic and peppercorns. Pour water to the maximum level and leave overnight in the "extinguishing" mode. In the morning, cool the broth and, separating the meat from the bones, cut it into pieces, knead the garlic, return it to the broth and salt. Fill the molds with meat, pour in the broth, let it brew and put in the refrigerator.
It is not difficult to understand how to cook jelly from beef or pork legs, aspic from chicken, tongue and fish. These delicious dishes are very healthy due to their high collagen content. Take care of your family's health and cook jelly not only for the holidays!
Winter is ahead. This means that jellied meat will appear on the tables - one of the best winter meat snacks. Delicious amber-transparent with the taste of a strong broth - jelly is considered a national Russian dish. And in every family, every housewife has their own secret recipes for jellied meat: someone prefers thick meat, someone likes transparent with bright accents of carrots and greens, while the main thing in the jelly is a fresh sugar bone or shanks! Cooking jellied meat will require patience from the cook, but the result is worth it. We will learn how to cook jellied meat correctly, how much to cook jellied meat, what meat to choose for it and how to cook transparent aromatic jelly.
How to cook jellied meat correctly
The golden rule - jellied meat should freeze without adding gelatin and agar-agar. If you adhere to simple rules: choose the right meat and bones and fill them with the right amount of water and cook for the required time, then your jelly will freeze on its own. And, moreover, if you cook the jellied meat correctly, the broth will remain transparent and appetizing!
How to choose meat for jellied meat
In the old days, jellied meat was cooked from those parts of beef or pork carcasses for which there was no other use: legs, heads, tails. However, now we have the opportunity to put any meat in the jellied meat, but do not forget that it is the bony-cartilaginous component that is responsible for the solidification of the jellied meat. So, in order to properly cook jellied meat, follow the rules:
- for the taste of jellied meat:
- choose the meat that you like more: pork (pork shank), beef (beef edge), rabbit, turkey, chicken (old roosters are especially good), and the meat of wild animals will give the jellied meat a unique taste;
- the meat and legs must be fresh, in which case you will get a fragrant broth, which means a delicious jellied meat;
- before pouring, you can add finely chopped garlic to the cooked meat, pepper, mix well and only then lay out in shapes.
- for solidification of jellied meat:
- there should not be a lot of meat in the jellied meat recipe - observe the proportions: for one part of the legs, take about two parts of the rest of the meat;
- in order for the broth to freeze without gelatin, it is imperative to use legs, shanks or tails; veins, cartilage, skin, skin also contribute to the freezing of the broth;
- the water should cover the food by about two centimeters;
- cook the jellied meat for at least 6 hours.
- for the beauty of jellied meat:
- jellied meat from beef or lamb legs will be more transparent than jellied meat from pork shanks;
- drain the first water;
- do not let it boil intensely;
- remove foam;
- strain the broth through 4 - 6 layers of gauze before pouring into molds.
How to cook transparent jelly
Before cooking jellied meat, legs, tails, and so on, should be soaked, this will allow you to cook a more transparent broth, because soaking will remove blood clots and other small particles that can turn into rags. So, rinse the meat, scrape the legs, if necessary, scorch and rinse too. Prepared food should be poured with cold water and left. Drain the water periodically. Usually it is enough to change 2 - 3 times to stop blushing. Before preparing the jellied meat, the water in which the meat and legs were soaked must be drained.
For greater transparency of the jellied meat, some housewives recommend draining the first water, which means: bring the food to a boil and drain the water, rinse the legs and meat again, pour cold water again, bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook over low heat.
Be sure to skim off the foam during the entire cooking time. To keep the jelly transparent, do not boil the contents of the pan intensively. If you don't follow these rules, you will get a muddy jelly.
How much water to pour into the jelly
An important rule that often does not fall into the recipe for jellied meat is that meat and drumsticks are poured only with cold water and there should not be too much or too little of it! This is a very important moment in the preparation of jellied meat. During the cooking process, the water is no longer topped up, so initially pour the required amount of water into the pan. Different housewives give different ways of determining the amount of water for jellied meat, remember the simplest one: the water should be about two centimeters above the meat level.
How much to cook jellied meat
Jellied meat recipes unambiguously say: jellied meat is cooked for a long time! Meat and bones should simmer over low heat, gradually giving the broth flavor and aroma. This is the only way you can properly cook delicious jellied meat - aromatic, rich and perfectly solidifying. So, pouring clean foods with cold water, bring everything to a boil, remove the foam and reduce the heat to such a degree that your broth gurgles quietly. Don't forget to skim off the lather and grease, if you like. It is also recommended to cook jellied meat without a lid.
Important! Jellied meat cooking time - at least 6-8 hours!
What to put in the jelly
- the onion, peeled from the first layer of husk - two hours before the end of boiling jellied meat;
- carrots - an hour before the end of boiling jellied meat;
- peppercorns - half an hour before the end of boiling jellied meat;
- bay leaf - half an hour before the end of boiling jellied meat.
How much salt to put in jellied meat
How to salt jellied meat depends on your taste. In general recommendations, it is advised to salt the jelly no earlier than an hour before cooking. Many people salt jellied meat after it has been cooked. Moreover, it is necessary to add more salt than you are used to. The broth should become salty enough, it may even seem oversalted to some. This is what will allow it, when solidified, to become a dish ideally balanced in salt. Unsalted jellied meat will be tasteless and bland.
How to check if the jelly is ready
After the cooking time has elapsed, the hostesses recommend checking whether the jellied meat hardens, thus: scoop up a little broth, cool slightly and moisten your fingers with it, if the fingers stick together when squeezed, then the broth is strong enough and the jellied meat can be considered ready for pouring.
How to disassemble and pour jellied meat
When the jellied meat is cooked, let it stand for 20 minutes and start parsing: separate the meat from bones and cartilage. The meat is removed from the broth with a slotted spoon. It is removed from the bones and separated from the cartilage and skin. The meat is cut or disassembled into small pieces with your fingers. It is often recommended to add finely-finely chopped cartilage to the meat, so the jellied meat will be denser. By the way, some housewives recommend adding finely chopped garlic to the meat, pepper, mix well and only then lay out in shapes. To decorate the jellied meat, you can cut circles or stars from carrots that have been boiled in aspic, you can lay out both leaves of fresh herbs and olives, cut in half. Prepared meat and vegetables must be poured with strained broth. You can stir, or you can leave the meat and jelly in layers.
Jellied meat freezing
First, the jellied meat is cooled at room temperature. After that, it can be put into the refrigerator. It is impossible to freeze jellied meat, it will lose its tenderness and softness, and it will also lose its taste.
What to serve aspic
It is customary to serve aspic to the festive table with vodka with horseradish, mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar or beetroot with horseradish.
Simple jellied recipes
Now that you are wondering how to cook jellied meat correctly, how much to cook jellied meat, how to make a transparent tasty jellied meat, it's time to try to do it in practice. Simple recipes for jellied meat have been selected for you.
Recipe Triple aspic or Aspic from three types of meat
1 beef shank2 pork shanks
1 whole chicken
2 carrots
2 onions
2 parsley roots
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp black pepper
3-4 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic
salt
Rinse the meat in cold water and soak overnight. Drain the water. Pour the meat with clean cold water and put on medium heat. Before boiling, skim off the foam and skim it regularly as it appears. After boiling, reduce the heat and cook over low heat with a barely noticeable boil for 8 hours. Do not cover the jelly with a lid. If the meat is fat, remove the fat every hour. After 2-3 hours of cooking, throw peeled carrots, parsley root, onion into a saucepan with jellied meat. An hour before the end of boiling jellied meat, throw peppercorns into the broth - black and fragrant, bay leaf. After 8 hours of cooking, remove the meat for parsing, and remove the vegetables and discard, salt the broth. Disassemble the meat into small pieces and put in a mold. Pour over strained broth and let cool at room temperature. To harden, remove the jelly in the refrigerator.
Beef Leg Aspic Recipe
2.2 kg beef leg
3 tablespoons of salt
black peppercorns
Bay leaf
Rinse the lower part of the beef leg, pour boiling water over it and let it boil. Drain and rinse the water again. Pour cold water over the meat on the bone again. In this case, the water must completely cover the meat. Bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the broth boils, remove the foam, reduce the heat and cook for about 6 hours. Until the meat is easily separated from the bone. Add salt, peppercorns, bay leaf 20 minutes before the end of cooking. Remove the prepared meat from the broth, separate from the bones. Strain the broth through a sieve, as small bones can get caught. Finely chop the meat, and, if available, cartilage and skins that have boiled down to a soft state. Spread the cut meat evenly in trays or bowls. On top of the meat, you can add 2-3 slices of boiled carrots in each tray for beauty, as well as some finely chopped garlic for flavor. Pour over strained broth, spreading it evenly over all trays. Put the trays with jellied meat in the refrigerator to freeze
Pork Leg Jellied Recipe
1 kg of pork legs
2 carrots
2 onions
Black peppercorns
2-3 bay leaves
Salt
Wash pork legs and scrape, singe, remove hooves. Soak for 3-4 hours. Pour the legs with water so that it covers them by 5 cm and put on high heat, bring to a boil. Drain the water and pour in a new one, again bring to a boil, remove the foam, put it on low heat. Cook for about 8 hours. An hour and a half before the end of cooking, put peeled carrots and onions in the peel. After another 40 minutes, add pepper and bay leaf. Remove meat and vegetables with a slotted spoon. Throw out vegetables. And separate the meat from bones and cartilage, finely chop. Arrange in forms. Strain the broth and pour the meat into the molds. Cool at room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours until solidification.
Recipe Jellied meat in a slow cooker
2 pork legs
2 chicken legs
2.5 l of water
1 onion
½ head of garlic
Salt
Peppercorns
Rinse the legs, clean and soak for 2-3 hours. Chop the chicken into pieces (the leg can be cut into three pieces). Peel the onion, put meat and onions, spices and salt in the multicooker bowl, add water to the maximum.Put on the stewing mode, the longer the better, it is convenient to leave the multicooker overnight. When the jellied meat is cooked, remove the meat, remove it from the bones and cut into small pieces. Add garlic cloves crushed with a knife to the broth. They are brewed while we are engaged in meat. Taste and salt if needed. Put the meat in molds, filling them in half or two-thirds. Pour over the strained broth. Cool at room temperature, and then refrigerate.
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Fragrant transparent jellied meat is a frequent guest at many festive feasts and celebrations. For some, the main decoration of the festive table is exotic dishes and tropical fruits. But many prefer traditional, but no less tasty food, which includes jellied meat. It is also often called jelly. However, not every young housewife dares to cook 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, it is necessary to follow some rules for its preparation. Do not neglect these recommendations - and jelly will definitely become your signature dish, a real decoration of any festive feast.
How to choose the right meat for jellied meat?
The first rule for preparing a transparent and tasty jellied meat is the choice of the basis for the dish. For cooking the jelly, you can take almost any meat of your choice - pork, beef, chicken or turkey. However, many experienced housewives recommend choosing beef. Since you can cook beef jellied meat only from some of them, you need to take meat on the bone, the part of the drumstick, which is located closer to the hoof, or the beef shank with veins, cartilage or skin. This choice is due to the fact that they contain special gelling substances that contribute to the 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 buying a meat set for making jellied meat, be sure to make sure it is fresh. If the beef has a specific "old" smell, small spots on the surface, visible traces of frequent frost, defrosting or too dark color - it is better to refuse to purchase such a product, since it will not work out of it to cook delicious jellied meat. Be sure to make sure that the meat set has approximately the same pulp and bone content. If there is too much beef pulp, the jelly simply will not solidify. The same goes for too much bone content. Therefore, the most important thing is to measure everything.
Food preparation
So, fresh meat has been selected for cooking jellied meat. Next, it must be properly prepared. The beef should be soaked - this helps to get rid of traces of blood and provides a beautiful transparent jelly base. If the meat is not soaked, the broth will be cloudy and unappetizing. Place the beef in cold water and let sit for a couple of hours before boiling the jellied meat. The recipe of any housewife is the same in that the meat must be completely covered with water, otherwise the remaining blood traces 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 meat knife or a hacksaw with large sharp teeth - with its help you can saw the beef bones so that there are no small fragments. If you just chop the beef with a hatchet, then sharp edges will definitely remain on the bones. Next, clean the meat with a knife, freeing it from bone fragments, prepare other ingredients for cooking.
Ingredients for making the jelly
- Beef or meat set weighing 2 to 4 kg.
- Pure cold water, better purified.
- Salt to taste (about when to salt the jellied meat, below).
- 2-3 large onions.
- 2-4 large carrots.
- Garlic cloves - 6-8 pcs.
- Spices and herbs of your choice - bay leaves, black peas, red peppers, and celery, dill.
The main stages of cooking jellied meat
Next, how to cook delicious jellied meat. Place the cooked meat set in a saucepan and cover with clean cold water. It is better to choose purified or filtered water for cooking this dish. If you use regular tap water, there will be a very high probability that the broth will appear cloudy. In addition, tap water has specific impurities that can give an unpleasant aftertaste to the finished jelly. Water should be taken in a 1: 2 ratio to meat - this means that 1 kg of beef 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 on fire.
So, how to properly cook jellied meat. After 20-30 minutes, as soon as the broth boils, it is necessary to carefully collect all the foam on its surface. The foam will rise throughout the cooking process, so it is very important to collect it thoroughly and regularly at all times. Through this process, the broth will remain clear and beautiful to look at. Many famous chefs recommend not to collect the foam, but to completely drain the first water in which the meat was cooked for the jellied meat. Drain off all the water, and rinse the beef itself thoroughly under clean running water - this way the meat will be cleansed of the remains of foam and bone fragments.
How to achieve a transparent color in the finished dish?
The question that torments not only novice housewives: how to make jellied meat transparent? Everything is simple here. Put the washed parts of the meat set back in the pan and fill with water, chop again if necessary. Then the pan can be put back on a small fire. Now, when foam or fat appears on the surface of the broth, you can simply remove them with a slotted spoon. As mentioned above, jellied meat is cooked over low heat - that is why the entire cooking process of this dish can take from 5 to 10 hours. In an attempt to speed up the long cooking process, do not increase the heat - the broth will become cloudy, and your jellied meat will turn out to be unattractive and unappetizing. In addition, long-term cooking over low heat promotes excellent solidification of the finished jellied meat - you do not need to use gelatin or other substances.
Rules for adding spices and herbs
After the jellied meat has boiled under the lid for 4-5 hours, it is time to add spices and herbs. This happens until the moment when it will be necessary to salt the jellied meat (including beef). Do not add these ingredients earlier than the specified period - 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 the skins without peeling - you just need to 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 put a whole unpeeled onion in the cooking jelly - this trick helps to give the broth a light golden hue. Garlic cloves can be put in any form convenient for you - whole or chopped. At the same time, add various spices to your future jellied meat to your liking - black pepper, allspice peas, 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 that can be easily spoiled with hot spices.
When do you need to salt beef jellied meat?
The main rule of a tasty and appetizing dish is proper salting. When to salt jellied meat? Remember that jellied meat must be salted 20-30 minutes before the end of its preparation. If you add salt to the dish earlier, the result will certainly disappoint you. The meat absorbs salt strongly. And even a small amount of it, poured in at the beginning of cooking, can make your dish simply inedible. In addition, the broth should be simmered for at least 5 hours - during this time, the water in the pan boils away strongly, 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.
Chop cooked meat correctly
After the jellied meat is cooked, turn off the heat and carefully remove the prepared meat from the pan with a slotted spoon. Whole onions and carrots can also be removed - they have already fulfilled their purpose. Cool the cooked meat slightly. Next, the cooked meat must be thoroughly chopped. This can be done simply with your hands or you can use a small knife to carefully separate the pulp from the bones and cartilage. Many people prefer to use a food processor or a meat grinder to grind meat, but in the case of cooking jellied meat, it is better to avoid such methods, since with this method of grinding, the finished dish loses its unique refined taste. Make sure that there are no small bones, remnants of skins or cartilage in the finished meat. Chop the cloves of garlic through a press and mix them with the resulting meat. It is better not to cut the garlic with a knife, but to press through a special press - this way it will mix better with the beef, there will be no large sloppy pieces.
Pour in the cooked meat correctly
Place chopped meat mixed with garlic at the bottom of deep bowls or trays. If you want to make your culinary creation brighter and more original, you can put pieces of boiled yolk or carrots on the bottom of the plates, as well as any other food of your choice. The meat must be poured with the resulting salted broth (we have already mentioned when to salt the jellied meat). To do this, it should be carefully filtered through a fine sieve or a gauze cloth folded in half. Thus, small pieces of cartilage and bones, excess fat are removed from the broth. As a result, it acquires an even, pure color and pleasant shade. Heat the strained broth slightly in a saucepan over low heat and pour over the cooked meat molds. If you use gelatin in the preparation of jellied meat, it's time to add this ingredient to the broth. To do this, take a glass with already prepared and strained broth, dilute one bag of gelatin in it and add the resulting mixture to the rest of the broth before pouring it into the molds.
Jellied meat freezing
It would seem that for housewives the most controversial issue 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 many questions - solidification.
For the complete solidification of the jellied meat, a rather significant amount of time is required - from 4 to 10 hours. You can leave the tins with a fragrant meat dish overnight. In order for the cooked jelly to freeze, it needs 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, the delicate jelly left on the balcony will simply freeze and completely lose its unsurpassed delicate taste. The best option for fast and high-quality solidification of the jelly is a refrigerator.
It is better not to put dishes with beef jellied meat on the top shelf of the refrigerator - as you know, this is the zone of the lowest temperature, and your meat delicacy will simply freeze over. It is not recommended to place molds with beef jelly on the lower shelves of the refrigerator - here, on the contrary, it will not solidify. The best choice would be a middle shelf with an optimal temperature regime.
So, you have learned how to properly cook 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 little soy sauce - it will give the jellied meat a special piquancy. Jelly served with pickled mushrooms or cucumbers, fresh or canned tomatoes, salad of fresh vegetables with herbs to your taste will become a very tasty combination.
The most important nuances
In order for the beef jellied meat to turn out really tasty and appetizing, follow a few simple rules for its preparation.
- The basic rule of how to make jellied meat transparent is in no case add water to meat that is already being cooked. If during the cooking process you add a new portion of water to the broth, it will lose its beautiful transparent color and become cloudy. In addition, this broth almost never solidifies without the addition of gelatin. In this case, it is best to immediately pour a little more water than you need into the beef pan - when boiling, the required amount of broth will remain, and its color will not suffer at all.
- Let's repeat when to salt the jellied meat during cooking. When preparing a tender meat delicacy, you should not do this at the beginning or in the middle of the process. When cooking, the broth boils away and becomes more saturated, the salt concentration increases significantly. That is why even a small pinch thrown into a pot of jelly at the beginning of cooking can make it salty and inedible.
- Many people do not like the specific fatty flavor that a ready-made beef or pork jelly can have. A simple way helps to avoid such an unpleasant phenomenon - be sure to drain the first water in which the meat was cooked. So you not only remove excess fat from the meat broth, but also make the finished dish difficult for the stomach.
- You should not try to put 10 kg of various meat products in a saucepan with broth. Remember that the water in the saucepan should cover the meat by at least 2-3 cm. This is necessary in order to obtain the required amount of pure and flavorful broth. If initially there is 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, the appearance of an unpleasant muddy shade in the finished meat dish cannot be avoided.
- 5-10 hours - this is how much jellied meat needs to be cooked. The recipe does not tolerate haste and sloppiness.
- Many experienced housewives recommend not throwing away the meat cartilage and skins that you get after the end of the beef cooking. Chop these foods thoroughly with a knife, meat grinder or food processor, then gently mix the mixture into the cooked beef. As you know, the cartilage and veins contain special ones that contribute to the rapid solidification of the finished aspic without the use of gelatin. In this case, the taste of a 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 jelly turned out not quite as you expected. With a little culinary practice and patience, your dish will become the main decoration of any festive table.
