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Meat Jelly
Take 2 or 3 pounds of the knuckle of veal, the same weight of fresh-killed gravy-beef, and 1 calf's foot; cut the meat from the bones, and chop them in pieces; lay them in the bottom of a stewpan, and put the meat on the top of them; then add as much cold water as will rise two or three inches above the meat; let the whole simmer gently for four hours, taking great care to remove every particle of scum as it rises in the first boiling. Strain through a fine hair sieve, and the next morning the whole of the fat can be taken off.
A clear, unseasoned gelatine stock of the sort Victorian kitchens kept on hand for the sick. The whole point is the calf's foot, which supplies enough collagen to make the strained liquid set firm when cold.
- The hinge: gentle simmer, never a boilA rolling boil emulsifies fat and suspended protein into the liquid and the finished jelly turns cloudy and greasy. Hold it at a bare tremble, around 180-190F, for the full four hours.
- Gravy-beefThis is shin or leg of beef, cut across the bone -- lean, sinewy, gelatine-rich meat sold today as shank or osso buco. "Fresh-killed" appears to mean recently slaughtered rather than hung, and free of taint; any fresh shank does.
- Knuckle of vealVeal shank or the joint end of the leg. Ask a butcher to saw it; the exposed marrow and cartilage matter more than the meat.
- Calf's footRarely stocked outside halal, kosher and Latin American butchers, though it can usually be ordered. Split pig's trotters set just as strongly and are far easier to find. Without one of the two you get broth, not jelly.
- Quantities and waterFour to six pounds of meat and bone plus a foot needs a large stockpot. How much water "two or three inches above the meat" amounts to depends on the shape of the pot, and the strained yield and firmness of the set will vary with it.
- SkimmingThe first twenty minutes throw up most of the scum. Take it off with a shallow spoon and do not stir, or it disperses and clouds the pot.
- Straining and chillingA fine hair sieve is a horsehair mesh; a double layer of damp cheesecloth in a colander does the same. Chill uncovered until cold, then refrigerate -- the fat lifts off as a solid disc the next morning.
- Keeping itThis is unsalted, unacidified stock and spoils quickly. Refrigerate within two hours of straining, use inside three days, or freeze in small portions. Bring any reheated jelly to a full boil before serving.
- Seasoning and servingThe recipe calls for no seasoning at all. For table use, salt it, and warm it with lemon juice, sherry or a little clear consomm\true wants salt and a squeeze of lemon to be palatable.
Invalid cookery was a distinct department of nineteenth-century household manuals, sitting between the kitchen and the sickroom at a time when there was little else to offer a convalescent but nourishment. Calf's-foot jelly, beef tea and meat essences were believed to concentrate the strengthening virtue of meat into a form a weak stomach could take, and the recipes are pointedly plain -- no onion, no herbs, often no salt, since strong flavours were thought to tax the patient. The gelatine also gave the jelly a practical advantage: set firm and kept cool, it lasted longer than broth in a house without refrigeration, and could be spooned out cold or melted to a cupful as needed. The technique is simply a long, low extraction of collagen, the same chemistry behind modern bone broth, which has revived much of the language of restorative virtue that these books used first.