General rules for preparing jellied meat
Jellied meat is prepared in two ways: with and without gelatin.
What do you need to make jellied meat without gelatin? The main ones are products with a high content of natural gluten - these are chicken feet, beef or pork legs, tails, ears, heads. A more delicious jellied meat will be obtained from a combination of different meats.
Example: to make the broth sticky, you can add chicken legs, pork leg and ears, and for the meat component, a piece of lean beef.
Clean all cooked products from dirt and rinse well, place in a saucepan of appropriate volume and fill with cold water (at the rate of 1.5 - 2 liters per 1 kg of meat). Then quickly bring to a boil. Once the foam appears, remove it and reduce the heat to low. And now, at a very low boil, cook the jellied meat covered for several hours.
It should be noted that during direct cooking, liquid cannot be added.
You can add onions or shallots, carrots, celery, parsley root. Vegetables should be thoroughly washed and chopped, but not peeled. They will be used only to improve the quality characteristics of the dish; the skins of the vegetables will give the finished jellied meat a light transparent golden color.
You can also peel the vegetables, cut them (if desired, you can even shape them), place them in a dish dish with a certain pattern, and then pour in broth with meat. Thanks to this, you will get an original presentation of this famous dish.
Next, you need to cool the resulting jellied meat and leave it in a cool place to harden.
Jelly recipe without gelatin
Products:
- 1 kg of meat (chicken feet, pork feet, ears, lean beef);
- 1 carrot;
- 1 parsley root;
- 1 onion;
- 2 liters of water;
- 1 bay leaf;
- 7 - 9 black peppercorns;
- salt and ground pepper to taste;
Preparation:
Place all the meat in a saucepan and add cold water, bring to a vigorous boil, remove the foam and reduce the heat. Cook over low heat for about five hours. An hour before the end of cooking, add salt, seasonings and washed and chopped vegetables.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Separate the meat from the bones and cut into small pieces, put in the broth, bring to a boil and cook over low heat for 30 - 45 minutes.
Readiness can be checked by the stickiness of the broth. Pour some broth into a shallow plate, let it cool, dip two fingers into the broth and rub them together, the fingers should stick.
Pour the resulting dish into molds and first let it cool a little (about 20 minutes), and then put it in the refrigerator to harden until completely cooked.
Recipe for jellied meat with gelatin
Products:
- products from the previous recipe;
- 20 g gelatin;
- 500 - 600 g of vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, beans, peas, parsley, cilantro);
- 0.5 liters of water.
Preparation:
We cook meat products as in the first recipe. Soak the gelatin in cold water (1 liter of water per 20 g of gelatin) and leave to swell for 30 - 40 minutes, then dissolve in hot water or heat, but do not bring to a boil. Gelatin brought to a boil loses its main properties .
Boil the vegetables, peel and cut into even slices. Remove the meat and strain the broth, add prepared gelatin to the hot clear broth.
Place vegetables and meat in a bowl or mold in layers; on the bottom layer are shaped pieces of vegetables and leaves or small sprigs of herbs. Fill with broth and leave to harden in a cold place.
The approximate time for the jelly to harden in the refrigerator is on average 2-5 hours. It depends on the volume of the prepared dish. The larger the bowl of jellied meat, the longer it takes for it to set.
How long does it take for jellied meat with gelatin to harden in the refrigerator?
There can be no direct answer; gelatin is just an additional component. Of course, if you put it in excess, you will achieve rapid hardening, but the jelly will also become more like translucent rubber.
It is generally accepted that the time it takes for jellied meat to freeze in the refrigerator is from two to five hours, depending on the composition. The pour point is also important, but don’t make an unacceptable mistake!
Do not freeze jellied meat! You may save a couple of hours by doing this, but the dish will be almost irretrievably spoiled. Crispy ice crystals in jellied meat are not the most pleasant sensation, and even if you let such jellied meat melt and then try to turn it into a jelly again, you won’t help the matter. Frozen jellied meat freezes much worse.
How long does it take for jellied meat with gelatin to harden? As a rule, gelatin can reduce the time it takes for a dish to set by half. Of course, do not time it until the broth reaches room temperature. Only after this is it customary to place the plates or containers in the refrigerator.
If you are interested in a specific question, how long does jellied meat take to harden in the refrigerator, then it is worth remembering that at a temperature in the general department of about +5 degrees, the broth will begin to thicken in about an hour, and you will have to wait up to 4 hours for complete hardening.
By the way, what kind of jellied meat do you like – the one that is put into a meat grinder, or the one where the meat is separated into pieces along the fibers? Both have the right to exist, but which one you prefer is a matter of taste and, probably, habit. In our family, jellied meat was cooked with “whole” meat - the broth solidified into a super “standing” jelly. It’s customary for my husband’s relatives to grind meat products into a meat grinder and fill them with broth - this jellied meat turns out to have a tender, melting taste. Both options are delicious, it’s even difficult to decide which is better?
What to do if the jellied meat still hasn’t frozen?
Possible reasons
- meat used for jellied meat does not contain enough cartilage;
- a large amount of water taken for cooking;
- insufficient cooking time;
- adding water during cooking.
If jellied meat is prepared without gelatin, then the most common reasons for poor hardening of jellied meat are non-compliance with the proportions of the ingredients (a lot of water was taken) or short cooking time. Then increase the cooking time so that the excess water boils away.
What to do if the jellied meat is not frozen?
If the jellied meat is already ready and has been in the refrigerator for several hours, but has not frozen, then this problem can also be corrected with gelatin. To do this, reheat the jellied meat again and drain all the liquid. Then dilute the gelatin and pour it into the jellied meat, and then pour it into the molds again and send it to harden in the refrigerator.
Gelatin will help fix a poorly prepared dish.
Gelatin is taken at the rate of 20 g per 1 liter of water. From this 1 liter of water (or failed jellied meat) you need to pour 250 ml, heat it until warm and pour in gelatin. Let it brew for 40 minutes. Gelatin should increase several times, so carefully look at the expiration date of the product. Stale gelatin does not have a jelly effect. Place the saucepan with the swollen gelatin in a water bath and, stirring, bring almost to a boil.
Important!
Gelatin should not boil, otherwise it will completely lose its gelling properties.
After the water bath, strain the gelatin through cheesecloth and pour into the cooled jellied meat. Heat the jellied meat slightly, stirring thoroughly so that the gelatin spreads throughout the pan and dissolves. Then pour into molds and let cool to room temperature, then put in the refrigerator. Advice: do not cook more jellied meat than you can eat in 2-3 days. After the third day, the jellied meat begins to “leak,” which means that it is no longer fresh.
What would a New Year's table be without jellied meat! It happens that something doesn’t work out, and instead of strong jelly in the container there is still the same broth. What to do if the jellied meat does not freeze - we will consider in the article.
There are several reasons for this:
- The broth contains a lot of meat, but little bones and cartilage
. The pulp does not contain those substances that cause the liquid to solidify. Therefore, jellied meat is cooked from bones, legs, heads, ears, lips, chicken paws and necks. - Much water
. During cooking, the water should only cover the contents, and the heat should be set to minimum. Then there will be enough liquid until the end of cooking, and you won’t have to add water - you can overfill it and ruin the dish. - Cooking time
. Jellied meat must be cooked for at least 6 hours. Chicken offal requires less time - 4 hours. This dish does not tolerate fuss and takes a long time to prepare. - It didn't take long for it to harden
. The broth needs at least 8 hours to harden into jelly. Jellied meat does not freeze in the refrigerator on the lower shelves closer to the door. It is better to move the container to the very top, closer to the wall - the temperature there is consistently colder. To be sure, you can leave the jellied meat overnight.
How to make jellied meat with gelatin
When preparing jellied meat with gelatin, the problem may lie in improper preparation of the gelatin; perhaps you brought it to a boil during the preparation process. Then you can save the failed dish by replacing the jelly mass.
To do this, drain the broth and leave the meat component in the mold; prepare the gelatin correctly:
- pour 20 g of gelatin into 1 liter of cool water, let it brew until it increases in volume;
- mix with hot water or heat while stirring. Do not bring to a boil under any circumstances;
- strain the gelatin through cheesecloth;
- heat the remainder of the failed jelly, mix with gelatin until it is completely dissolved;
- Leave to cool and then refrigerate until completely set.
- let set in the cold.
Pork jellied meat with gelatin
To ensure that the pork jelly freezes well, it is better to cook a cold dish with gelatin. Jellied meat made from pork and gelatin freezes well; lovers of a lot of meat in jellied meat and cartilage will definitely like this recipe with pork knuckle.
Will need
- pork knuckle – 500 g;
- pork – 500 g;
- gelatin – 20 g;
- carrots – 1 pc.;
- onion – 1 pc.;
- garlic – 3-4 cloves;
- bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
- salt to taste;
- ground black pepper;
- black peppercorns.
How to cook pork jellied meat with gelatin
- Before cooking pork, the pork knuckle must be soaked in water so that the skin softens and it is possible to scrape off hard-to-reach places, clean them of blood, and remove dirt from the skin. Usually pork meat is soaked in water overnight so that the jellied meat can be cooked in the morning.
- Place the meat, cleaned of small bones, and place the shank in a saucepan and fill with cold water so that the water barely covers the meat products.
- Bring to a boil without leaving the stove in order to remove the noise (scale) in time, otherwise the jellied meat will turn out cloudy and not transparent.
- As soon as foam begins to appear on the surface of the water, it must be immediately removed with a slotted spoon.
- Reduce the heat on the stove and cook the pork at a low simmer for 4-5 hours. During cooking, remove the fat that appears on the surface of the broth, cleaning the broth.
- We dilute gelatin for jelly in a glass of water and leave it on the kitchen counter for 50-60 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the whole peeled carrots and onion into a saucepan with broth. To enhance the taste and aroma, add bay leaves and peppercorns and add some salt.
- Cook the meat with vegetables for about an hour or longer. In total, homemade jellied meat takes 6 hours to cook, plus it takes 4-5 hours to harden.
- Remove the pork parts with bones from the finished jelly, separate the meat from the bones and cut into pieces.
- Strain the slightly cooled broth into a clean saucepan. Add the chopped meat to the broth and bring it to a boil. Add chopped garlic, pepper, pour in dissolved gelatin, mix.
- Pour into portioned forms or pour the jelly into regular plates, not forgetting to decorate the dish before it hardens.
- We take it to a cool place or after cooling to room temperature, place it in the refrigerator.
Serve on the holiday table as an independent cold appetizer with horseradish, mustard or in combination with potatoes.
Another classic recipe with dried herbs “Beef jelly with vegetables”
Products:
- 1 kg of meat (beef legs, meat with films, cartilage and tendons);
- 2 medium carrots;
- 2 medium onions;
- salt, pepper to taste;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of chopped dry herbs (raspberry leaves, rose hips, chamomile).
Preparing jellied meat with gelatin
Chop the processed beef legs. Cut cartilage, films and tendons as finely as possible. Then pour cold water over the meat (2 liters of water per 1 kg of meat), quickly bring to a boil and, without removing the foam and fat, cook for about 5 - 7 minutes. Leave for about an hour without heating, covered. Bring to a boil again, add herbs and spices, coarsely chopped onions and carrots. Leave for about 1 hour.
Repeat this until (pulsating heating method) until the meat can be easily separated from the bones.
Pass the finished meat products through a meat grinder and pour in the strained broth, keep in the cold until jelly forms.
