We continue to prepare for the holidays and it's time to think about a real Russian dish - jellied meat.
If you think that jellied meat is too complicated and troublesome, you shouldn't even bother, but rather buy it in a store. Then this selection of tips will definitely come in handy for you and there will be a desire to make your own homemade jelly for the festive table.
Believe me, everyone will get excellent jelly!
Secret # 1 - meat base
There should be meat in the jelly. Not just pork legs, ears or bones with cartilage. Yes, they are needed and important. But only for a rich broth, which hardens well, turning into elastic jelly or, as they used to say in the villages before, into "trembling".
Real jellied meat with meat! Therefore, along with the above products, a good piece of meat pulp must be put into the broth.
It can only be one type of meat (pork, beef or poultry). And also a combination of several types, like assorted jellied meat.
Secret number 2 - gelatin and more
What is jelly or jelly? This is a cold snack dish where pieces of meat are frozen in meat jelly. And so that the jelly "grabs" well, the broth is boiled for it for a very long time - at least 3 hours.
This brew requires special ingredients that contain natural gelatin or collagen.
Usually jellied meat is cooked from pork or beef legs, ears, tails and sometimes pork shanks to get the coveted stickiness. The one that will then turn into jelly.
But if the stickiness is weak and there are doubts that the broth will solidify, then gelatin should be used. Do not be afraid of him or refuse yellowish crystals. This is the same broth that has been cooked for many, many hours and then dried.
The main thing is to buy a large bag of natural gelatin without additives and dilute it according to the instructions.
Secret number 3 - water
Remember this rule - no matter how much the liquid evaporates when cooking the jellied meat, you cannot add water to the dishes. Never!
When placing food for cooking, the water should completely cover the meat, and then evaporate by half. This is normal!
Aspic will be transparent and tight only if the volume of water and the remainder of the finished broth liquid are correctly determined.
Poured water will ruin the stickiness, make the jelly cloudy and it will simply melt on the plate, turning into a slurry.
Secret # 4 - time
There is no secret in this, really good jellied meat can be obtained only by long-term simmering of meat and legs in broth.
Important! Jellied meat is boiled for an average of 5 to 10 hours at very low heat and with a low boil. It all depends on the basics. So chicken can be cooked in 3-5 hours. But beef will have to darken longer.
Secret number 5 - salt, spices, additives
Another rule to remember is that jellied meat cannot be salted during cooking! This is not a stew!
Salt destroys stickiness and natural gelatin. Such jellied meat will not harden well and will look like pieces of jelly grains on meat.
Jellied meat can be salted only at the very end, when it is time to start cutting the meat. And this should be done a little harder than ordinary broth, since after hardening it will be tasteless due to lack of salt.
It is recommended to add a whole carrot and onion to the broth. But the garlic is cut finely and used when pouring broth into molds. That's when you can add greens and stuff to decorate.
At the expense of spices - jellied meat does not require too much seasoning. But a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns and allspice will definitely not interfere.
Secret # 6 - fat
Any meat broth always contains fat. No matter how you remove it during cooking, it will still lie on top of the jellied meat.
You do not need to remove all the fat when cooking jellied meat! If there is too much of it, then you can remove 1-5 tbsp. l. The rest - let it be!
White fatty coating on the finished jellied meat keeps it from drying out and airing in the refrigerator, keeps the freshness and natural taste of meat longer.
When serving, fat is always easily removed with a simple movement of a spoon.
Secret number 7 - freezing
There is a mistake that almost everyone who first starts cooking jellied meat makes - they immediately place dishes and pans with meat in broth in the refrigerator.
Yes, many will definitely wait until everything cools down a little and then put it on. But... Jellied meat must be removed into the refrigerator when it has already begun to set. That is, in 1-3 hours after pouring and packaging.
There are tricks with which solidification will be faster:
- place empty jellied dishes in the freezer for 20-30 minutes
- put the meat in frozen bowls and bowls and again in the freezer for a few minutes
- remove the meat trays from the freezer and pour over the cooled strained broth with or without gelatin
- leave the jellied meat on the table or take it out to the balcony / terrace / cool room without freezing temperatures for 20-40 minutes
- put cold dishes with jellied meat in the refrigerator for 3-8 hours
Important!
- You should not put warm jelly in the refrigerator - it may not freeze at all.
- You cannot leave the jellied meat in the cold (outdoors in winter) for more than 15 minutes - it will freeze and turn into porridge.
- There is no need to boil the broth with gelatin and overheat - the gelatin will lose its ability to gelate liquid.
- So that the jellied meat does not melt on the table during serving, put it on a slightly frozen plate, holding it in the freezer in advance.
Good luck to you!
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