Jellied meat is a rich broth of meat and bones, which is brought to a jelly-like state. This consistency in him, in many respects, is due to collagen, a substance that is found in pork legs, ears, cartilage, bones or chicken legs and wings. Thanks to these components, this dish is very useful for human joints, and with the help of mustard or horseradish it is easy to give a piquant taste.
Before you cook the jelly, you need to choose the right ingredients. Initially, it was prepared only from beef head, brains and legs. However, now the dish has undergone significant changes, and many prefer to make pork as the main component. In order for the broth to freeze without the use of gelatin, you need to stop your choice on the head and legs of the pig. You should know that, unlike beef, such a jelly will be more cloudy and greasy. It is very important to pay attention to the freshness of meat. Before cooking, the legs should be soaked in cold water for about an hour, and then slightly scraped.
If we talk about how to cook pork jellied meat, these ingredients will be enough. But many housewives prefer to add here meat of other varieties. In this case, you can take pork legs for the jelly effect, and for the meat part - beef tenderloin or chicken fillet. It should be noted that it should not contain a lot of fat, since the pork head and legs already contain it in sufficient quantities.
Before you cook the jelly, you need to choose the appropriate container for cooking and for the subsequent dish. In the first case, it should be a large pan with a volume of at least 5 liters. For the finished broth, small bowls are often used, not too deep and wide (so it will be better to solidify).
In order to cook jelly, take the following vegetables: onions, carrots, celery, herbs. Here the cooking technology may differ, because of which there is a difference in the taste of the finished dish. Some housewives lay everything at the same time with meat ingredients after boiling water, and take it out after an hour and a half. Others - 1.5 hours before graduation. Vegetables are put peeled, in general. Here it is necessary to carefully monitor that they do not fall apart and turn into porridge, and remove them from the broth in time, after they have given the desired taste.
Spices in this dish can be used according to your preferences. However, in most cases, bay leaf, peppercorns, dill seeds, cloves are used. It is better to lay them at the beginning of cooking, simultaneously with meat.
Salt is added an hour before the jelly is cooked completely. This point is very important, as the under-salted dish will be fresh, and it is impossible to eat salted after solidification.
This dish is being prepared for a rather long time, so you need to be patient. The average cooking time is from 6 to 12 hours. After the end, the meat is separately pulled out and the broth is filtered. It is better to disassemble the meat ingredients by hand, so there will be more confidence that bone fragments will not get here. However, if you wish, you can use a meat grinder or food processor. The resulting pieces are laid out portionwise in prepared bowls.
In order to determine whether or not the broth hardens without using gelatin, you can drip a little on your fingers. If they stick together after this, nothing more can be added. The broth is poured into the dishes, where the meat is already laid out and put in a cold place until solidified.
There are many recommendations on how to cook jelly . So, some housewives before they cool the dish put there circles of boiled carrots and chopped eggs. To add spice, you can add garlic, passed through a press. In most cases, aspic is served with mustard or horseradish.