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JELLY, MEAT, FOR PIES (superior)
Take a pound and a half of the knuckle or neck of veal and half a pound of the shin of beef. Cut them into small pieces, and put them into a saucepan with a quarter of a pint of good beef stock; simmer gently for half an hour, then add two pints more stock, and also a shallot, three ounces of uncooked lean ham, a quarter of a tea-cupful of bruised celery-seed tied in muslin, a clove, a small bunch of savoury herbs, and half a dozen peppercorns. Simmer slowly for three or four hours, or until the liquid will jelly. If quickly boiled, the jelly will not be so clear. Strain the gravy, add salt if required, and put it aside until quite cold, so that the fat may be entirely removed. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for a pint and a half of jelly.
This is a concentrated gelatinous stock, poured into raised pies and cold pies after baking to fill the gap left as the filling shrinks. It sets by collagen alone, with no added gelatine.
- The hinge: never let it boilThe hinge: keep it below a boil -- The recipe says to simmer gently and slowly, and warns that if "quickly boiled, the jelly will not be so clear." A rolling boil emulsifies fat and drives protein scum through the liquid, and straining afterwards will not fully recover clarity. The book gives no temperature.
- Cuts to ask forKnuckle of veal is the shank end, sawn across so the marrow and joint cartilage are exposed; shin of beef is from the foreleg. Veal knuckle is usually sold bone-in, osso-buco style; beef shin may be bone-in or boneless. The recipe directs you to cut them into small pieces, though a butcher can saw the bone for you.
- MeasuresA quarter of a pint is 5 fl oz in imperial measure, about two-thirds of a US cup. Two pints more stock is 40 fl oz imperial, roughly 6 US cups. Total liquid is about 2 1/4 imperial pints, reducing to about 1 1/2 pints, so expect to lose roughly a third.
- The celery seedA quarter of a teacupful is roughly 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of seed, which is assertive by modern palates. Bruise it, tie it in muslin as directed, and taste at the two-hour mark so you can lift the bag out early if it dominates.
- Testing the setSpoon a little onto a cold saucer and refrigerate five minutes. It should be tacky and hold a fingerprint. If it stays liquid, reduce further rather than adding more time at heat.
- Skimming and clarityChill overnight so the fat sets to a firm disc you can lift off whole; wiping the surface of the jelly with a cloth wrung out in hot water removes the last film. Straining through muslin rather than a sieve makes the difference between cloudy and bright.
- Using itWarm to a pourable liquid and funnel it into the pie through a hole in the crust once the pie is cool, never hot. Season it noticeably higher than seems right, since a cold jelly tastes flatter than a warm gravy.
- KeepingUnsealed, treat it as fresh stock: refrigerate and use within three days, or freeze in a block. It will not keep at room temperature despite its firm set.
- YieldAbout 1 1/2 imperial pints, roughly 4 1/2 US cups, as the recipe states.
Meat jelly of this kind belonged to the era of the raised pie and the cold collation, when a game or veal-and-ham pie was baked in a standing crust and the void that formed as the meat shrank was filled with savoury jelly to exclude air and keep the filling moist. Its logic is gelatin chemistry: knuckle and shin are chosen for their connective tissue, and the ham and celery seed supply the salt and aromatic that a cold jelly needs to taste of anything at all. The instruction not to boil quickly is the same rule that governs consomme, and the note that the jelly "will not be so clear" shows the concern for appearance in cold food. The costing of 2s. 6d. is typical of the dictionary's habit of pricing every entry for a household keeping accounts.