Jellied meat, or jelly (as it is also called), is a popular and beloved dish, which is appropriate for a festive table and for everyday meals. When to add gelatin to jelly? This will be discussed in the article.
The benefits of this dish
Besides the fact that the jelly is tasty and nutritious, it is also useful. It has a high collagen content, which includes pectins and amino acids. They nourish and support the joints, ligaments and cartilage of the body, even intervertebral discs. Collagen not only nourishes, but also maintains the elasticity of the constituent components of the human musculoskeletal system.
When gelatin is added to jellied meat
Each mistress has her own traditions in cooking jellied meat. Someone is sure that well-cooked meat with bones and skin itself will guarantee the broth hardens. But for this, the percentage of return of the gelling substance during cooking must be very high. To do this, bones, cartilage and skin should be added to the pan in sufficient quantities. They should cook for a long time - from 6 to 8 hours. If there is no certainty that the jelly will harden on its own, then food gelatin will come to the rescue .
It is indispensable in the preparation of aspic. This is specified in any recipe for this dish. Poured meat, tongue, fish are cooked independently. The broth of them, not containing bone and cartilage, is independently only slightly gelled. Therefore, you can not do without food gelatin.
How, when to add gelatin to jelly and how much? Let's discuss it.
When should gelatin be added and how much
So when to add gelatin to jelly? This must be done in the final stages of preparation. It is soaked in advance and added to the hot prepared broth, which will be described in more detail below.
The proportions of the added gelatin should be calculated based on the recommendations indicated on the bag with this product. Traditionally, when soaked, it is a tablespoon in a glass of cooled boiled water. If the broth is cooked in a large volume, then the number of soaked spoons of gelatin should be increased. But water for swelling already needs to be taken sparingly so that it does not dilute the rich taste of the future dish, but also so that the gelatin solution is not too thick when soaked.
You should remember the rule that the cooked components of the future jelly will be better to give their collagen to the broth and cook faster if the salt is added only at the end of cooking.
Jellied meat should never be overcrowded, not only because it will ruin its taste, but also because it will reduce the guarantee of solidification, both independently and with the addition of gelatin. Therefore, lovers of more salty foods should increase the amount of added gelatin.
When to add gelatin to chicken jellied meat
An interesting fact is that if not chicken, but a rooster enters the pan for jellied meat, then gelatin can not be added to the finished broth. The bones and skin of the bird during prolonged cooking will give all the collagen, and the jelly will freeze itself. But for this you need to be sure that this is a rooster, especially grown on a home yard.
The city dweller who bought the chicken from the store counter should know that gelatin should be added to the jelly from it. This also applies to aspic cooked from chicken legs or necks.
When to add gelatin to chicken jelly? An hour before the end of boiling the broth, soak gelatin, based on the proportions indicated on the bag.
Boil the chicken well with spices. Fat is removed from the surface with a spoon. After that, the meat should be cut and laid out in plates or forms. At will, meat is decorated with greens, eggs, and carrot mugs. Garlic is a favorite ingredient in jellied meat.
Only after that, pre-soaked and swollen gelatin is poured into the hot (but not boiling!) Broth. You can strain the broth before this. The main thing is to prevent a new boil, but simply to achieve complete dissolution. Some recipes talk about adding gelatin at the end of cooking, which is understood as continuing boiling. But then the solidification force may decrease.
Plates filled with meat are poured with broth with gelatin and put in the cold.
When to add gelatin to turkey jelly
For turkey jelly, shanks and wings are usually chosen. This bird gives a stronger fat than chicken, due to larger and stronger bones, cartilage and thick skin. It also boils longer than chicken. To set the broth, cutting meat on plates, many housewives finely and finely chop the skin of the bird. However, for guaranteed solidification in a turkey broth, gelatin should be added.
So when to add gelatin to jelly? This component also needs to be poured at the end of cooking using the same technology as in the chicken dish.
Add gelatin to pork jelly
Jellied pork is traditional in Slavic cuisine. When cooking, legs (hooves, lower legs, shanks) are used. Based on the listed components, the meat pulp is added to the pan to ensure the saturation of the finished jelly. Cook for a long time, up to seven hours. Pork gives a lot of fat, so it must be removed from the surface throughout the boil. Otherwise, your jellied meat during hardening will be covered not only with a greasy film, but even with a white crust.
If it is customary for the owners to chop finely cut the skin from the legs and mix with the meat, the guarantee of solidification in the plates will be higher. If, after digestion, the skins are removed along with the bones, it is recommended to add gelatin.
When to add gelatin to pork jellied meat? This is also done in the last stage of cooking. A pre-soaked gelatin is poured into a hot strained broth.
Pork meat requires more spices when cooking, more garlic when cutting and decoration in containers and plates.
Add gelatin to beef jelly
Beef drumsticks require the longest cooking time compared to all other types of meat. But the return of the gelling substance during their preparation is high. Beef flesh also boils for a long time. Jellied meat is strong and most often does not require the addition of gelatin. But it should be noted that beef, both directly meat and tongue, is often used for aspic and is cooked without bones. In this case, edible gelatin is added necessarily, according to the same recipe as described above: before the end of cooking. For broth, the broth is filtered very carefully, since the dish requires absolute transparency. The meat is not cut into fibers, but cut in portions.
Now you know how and when to add gelatin to the jelly.
Jellied Recipe
Now one of the recipes for preparing this dish will be presented to your attention. To add gelatin or not is up to you.
The preparation of jellied meat from one type of meat was described above. But most often used compound broths for this dish. Here is one of the recipes:
- For a couple of pork hooves and one shank, take one kilogram of beef pulp, one turkey drumstick and five chicken legs. After thorough washing, lower the pork and beef components into cold water and cook for three hours, then lower the turkey drumstick into the pan, cook for another hour. After that, add the chicken drumsticks there and cook all together for a couple more hours. Together with chicken, pepper, bay leaf, onion, carrots should be added.
Butchered all the meat in the traditional way, flavored with garlic, garnished. The guarantee of self-solidification of such a broth is high. But to be sure, you can add gelatin.