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Pigs' Feet in Jelly
2 pair feet 3 quarts cold water Salt and pepper 1 cup vinegar 1 teaspoon powdered allspice 1/2 teaspoon powdered cloves Pinch of powdered mace Clean the feet and put them over the fire in the water. Boil slowly until the meat falls from the bones; strain through a colander; return the broth to the kettle and boil until reduced to one pint. Remove all the meat from the bones; cut it into small pieces and add the seasonings. When the broth is reduced, add the meat and vinegar; let simmer two or three minutes; then pour into molds. Serve on the following day, emptying the molded jelly upon a platter and garnishing with parsley or other green.
A cold jellied meat that sets on its own collagen, with no added gelatin. It needs long, patient simmering and a cold refrigerator overnight; almost nothing else.
- What to buy"2 pair feet" means four trotters, roughly 3-4 lb. Ask the butcher to split them lengthwise, which speeds extraction and makes picking the meat far easier. Fresh, not cured or smoked; pickled trotters will throw the seasoning off."
- Time on the fireMeat falling from the bone takes 3 to 4 hours at a bare simmer. A hard boil emulsifies the fat into the broth and gives a cloudy, greasy jelly, so keep the surface barely trembling and skim the scum during the first half hour.
- Reducing to a pintThree quarts down to one pint is a serious reduction and it is the whole point: it concentrates the gelatin so the mold sets firm without any help. Judge it by chilling a spoonful on a cold saucer, which should set rubbery within a few minutes.
- Degrease before moldingThe book skips this. Chill the strained broth, lift off the solid fat cap, then reduce; otherwise the finished jelly carries a waxy layer on top when unmolded.
- Season heavilyCold blunts salt, acid and spice noticeably. Taste the hot broth once the meat and vinegar are in and push the salt and pepper further than seems right warm. The cup of vinegar is not a misprint; it is what keeps a dish this rich edible.
- Molds and settingLoaf pans, ramekins or a bowl all work. Rinse them in cold water rather than oiling, and give the mold at least 8 hours in the refrigerator, which is what the instruction to serve the following day is really about. Dip the mold briefly in hot water to release.
- KeepingThe original assumed a cold larder. Refrigerate throughout and eat within three or four days; the vinegar helps, but this is still a moist meat preparation and should be treated as perishable.
- Yield and servingAbout 1 quart of set jelly, serving 6 to 8 as a first course or cold lunch. Slice it thick and serve with sharp mustard, pickles and dark bread.
Jellied trotters belong to the old economy of the whole animal: the feet carry almost no meat but a great deal of collagen, and boiling them down was a common way to get gelatin before packaged sheets and powders were cheap and widely available. Many European pork-eating traditions have a version, from French fromage de tete and the Polish and Ukrainian studzienina and kholodets to the souse and head cheese of American and Caribbean kitchens, and the vinegar-and-warm-spice treatment here, allspice, cloves, mace, is the familiar Anglo-American souse seasoning. Its place in the Meats section of a general household cookbook is a reminder that a cook was expected to buy cheap cuts and make them into something presentable enough to unmold on a platter and garnish with parsley.