Kholodets is rarely cooked today. What for? After all, now in the markets you can buy everything. Or order in cooking, in a restaurant, in worst case. Women are losing the habit of preparing such delicious and, by the way, healthy snacks, and their families are getting used to the incomprehensible look and taste of aspic and so on.

Do you want to learn how to cook delicious aspic? Arm yourself with everything you need, go to the kitchen. Together with me, step by step, we will do what your family undoubtedly wants. They will forever remember the aromas that will be carried throughout the house during cooking, and this unique taste, which cannot be compared with anything. And in general, jelly will decorate both the festive table and diversify the usual family menu.

What is jelly usually made from? The list of products is quite extensive. And any hostess who often cooks this dish has her own set. It would not be superfluous to say that any kind of meat is good for this dish, plus various flavors in the form of carrots, onions, garlic, and so on. My jelly was prepared from legs - pork and chicken.

Alas, there are two drawbacks to jelly. The first - it is instantly eaten. The second is a lot of cooking time. But it's all worth it! If you are cooking for the first time, it is worth doing it once, and there will never be problems with aspic.

Products

• Pork leg - 1 piece
• Chicken leg - 3-4 pieces
• Bulb - 1 pc.
• Carrots - optional
• garlic - more
• Bay leaf - 2-3 leaves
• Peppercorns - 20 pcs
• Salt - to your taste
• Spices - optional

How to deliciously cook jelly at home - step by step instructions with photos

But did you know that earlier aspic was not considered a gourmet dish? Yes, after feasts, it was customary for us then to collect all the leftovers from the tables and, pouring water, boil. After cooling this mass, it was distributed to the common people. Well, the progenitor of modern jelly is a frozen meat soup with broth, which the northerners kept in the cold. He strongly restored strength and sated. We still need to take up the meat. Rinse the legs, clean them thoroughly. After rinsing under running cold water, leave them for a quarter of an hour to get wet.

Step 1. Fill the legs with water

In order for us to get a broth that would then solidify with pieces of meat, becoming like jelly, as was the case with our ancestors, pour the correct amount of water into the pan. That is, it should rise above the meat by four to five fingers. Let's turn on the gas and wait for the boil, this moment should not be missed. Why? Firstly, you will not have time to remove all the scale, and this will affect everything. Secondly, the broth will not be as transparent as we would like. In a word, it will not look appetizing. Therefore, after reducing the fire after boiling, we remove this foam until there is no trace of it left. We will allocate an hour and a half for cooking, after which we will put carrots, cooked spices, onions and chicken legs in a saucepan.

Step 2. Add chicken legs and spices

And again, let's forget about the jelly, remembering how this jelly conquered our kitchen! It turns out that the French, or rather, the fashion for French, we can be indebted to the fact that this dish is firmly registered on our tables. The local cooks, having brought something of their own, came up with jellied fish with spices for royal feasts. And for ordinary people, it was more common to cook meat for many hours, to such an extent that it moved away from the bones. This is how it should be with us. Let's go back to our kitchen, hasn't it been four hours since we put the chicken in? It's time to salt the dish a little and add finely chopped garlic to it.

Step 3. Pour the chopped garlic into the pan

Love greens? Great. Add it to the pan 5 minutes before the end of cooking. But first of all, we need to turn off the gas, select all the meat and bones, vegetables and seasonings from the pan. Is the meat separated from the bone? So much the better, less work! Put everything in a bowl, let it cool.

Step 4. Cool the meat

And here it is, this is a wonderful moment when you need to pour the broth into plates. But before that, cut the meat into small pieces. Let's cut a nice carrot. We put all this at the bottom of the bowls, into which we will pour the cold. And we will definitely need to strain the broth. If this is not done, the jelly will not have transparency. In a word, put garlic, greens and carrots on the bottom of the plates, on top - pieces of meat (half the container, or as you like, the more meat, the better the cold will grab), and fill this beauty with strained and slightly cooled broth.

Step 5. Pour the broth into bowls

Someone may ask - where is the gelatin? Like, with him the jelly hardens harder. But I never put it, because it changes the taste! If you put the correct proportion of legs, the broth poured into bowls will harden very quickly, even just on the windowsill. Sometimes, especially in cold weather, a quarter of an hour is enough for solidification, and you can already take a sample!

Step 6. Ready meal

• Do not be afraid that it takes 6 hours to cook. Time will fly by quickly.
• The main thing is that the fire is small, and the dish languishes, not boils.
• Gelatin is put if there is not enough meat or legs, which give a gelling effect.
• Salt at the end of cooking, because in 6 hours the broth boils away.
• Water should not be added at any stage - this portion is enough.
• Aspic is simply shown to those who suffer from arthrosis, arthritis, osteochondrosis and fractures.

What kind of dish is jellied meat? Everyone will tell you that this is a frozen meat broth. A transparent jelly-like structure is given to it by astringents contained in pork or beef bones.

These components have a beneficial effect on human joints. In addition, jelly is hearty and delicious dish, which is easy to spice up with mustard or horseradish.

Aspic is used as an appetizer before main courses. Its variety is aspic, which is slightly different in taste from jelly, because. it is prepared mainly from fish (pike).

The canonical jelly was prepared only from beef. For such a jellied meat, a beef head, brains and legs were used. However, over time, the set of products for jelly has undergone significant changes.

Today, jelly is prepared from a variety of product sets. The recipes are countless. For the meat part of jelly beef, veal, pork, meat of domestic and wild poultry are used.

Various vegetables are used as flavoring additives (carrots, onions, garlic, celery), spices and spices.

However, the most important component jellied meat there were and still are pork or beef legs, ears, heads. It is these ingredients that make it possible to prepare a real strong jellied meat without the addition of gelatin.

After all, jelly prepared with the addition of gelatin turns into aspic, and this is a completely different dish!

1. Choosing the right pork or beef heads or legs

In order for your jelly to turn out strong and harden well without adding gelatin, you will definitely need pork or beef heads or legs.

It should be borne in mind here that pork jelly is somewhat more cloudy and fatty than beef jelly.

When buying legs or heads for jelly, pay close attention to their freshness. Stale, not too fresh legs or meat from old animals can irreparably spoil the taste of your dish.

If you buy frozen legs, then pay attention to their color. The legs should be even, light in color, without stains and traces of defrosting.

When choosing chilled legs and heads, be sure to smell them. Fresh meat has a pleasant sweet smell. It is better to refuse to buy meat that has an unpleasant smell of ammonia or old fat, delicious aspic You can't cook from that kind of meat.

Before cooking, the legs must be thawed and soaked in cool water for about an hour. After that, scrape the legs with a sharp knife and rinse thoroughly in running water.

2. Determining with additional types of meat

As mentioned above, any type of meat or poultry can be used for the meat component of the jelly.

The most delicious are jelly, in which are combined different kinds meat. For example, if you use pork legs for a gelling effect, then for the meat part, take beef tenderloin and a little chicken or turkey meat.

The meat of wild animals or birds can give a special piquancy to your jelly. If you have such an opportunity, try adding some venison or wild duck meat to your jelly, and you will be surprised how much more interesting and aromatic the taste of a familiar dish becomes.

Whatever type of meat or poultry you decide to use in your jelly, it should not be too fatty, because the legs, heads, cheeks already contain a sufficient amount of fat.

A thick layer of fat formed on the surface of the frozen aspic will not give your dish appetizing. Tenderloin or white meat is best for the meat part.

3. Boil the jelly in a saucepan or in a pressure cooker.

Aspic is not boiled in small pots, so you will need a capacity of at least five liters. Or even seven, so that all the meat fits and there is enough broth.

And immediately take care of another container - where you will pour the already prepared jelly. This container (or even several containers) should be large in area and not very high.

If you cook in a pressure cooker, then meat, bones and vegetables should be put immediately so as not to open it hot

4. For the vegetable part of the jellied meat, use onions, carrots, herbs and celery or parsley stalks

Vegetables are cooked with meat.

There are two ways to bookmark vegetables. In the first method, vegetables are laid at the very beginning of cooking and removed after 1 - 1.5 hours.

Otherwise, vegetables are laid 1.5 hours before the end of cooking. Thanks to different ways bookmarking vegetables taste of the finished dish gets a little difference.

Usually vegetables are laid whole and already peeled, but if you want to give your jellied meat a pleasant golden hue, then you can put onions without peeling, but only by cutting off the roots and getting rid of the topmost layer of the husk.

When cooking vegetables, make sure that they do not boil and do not turn into gruel!

You can use any spices for jelly, depending on your taste and desire. Most often, bay leaves, black, white and allspice peas, cloves, dill seeds are used to prepare jellied meat. It is best to lay all the spices at the very beginning of cooking aspic, along with the meat.

5. An hour before the end of cooking, the jelly must be salted. This is the most important secret of cooking jelly, since salted jelly is not at all tasty fresh.

You need to salt so that the jelly is a little oversalted - when it hardens, the taste of the jelly will be excellent!

6. The duration of cooking jellied meat should be from 6 to 12 hours.

The longer your jelly is cooked, the more saturated its taste and aroma will turn out, and the better and stronger its consistency will turn out.

After the meat is cooked, take it out on a separate dish and let it cool slightly, and strain the remaining broth through cheesecloth or a fine sieve into a separate bowl.

Now comes the most important point in the preparation of jelly, to which you can involve the whole family. Disassembly of meat.

It is best to disassemble the meat with your hands, gently rubbing the fibers between your fingers and tearing them. Thus, you can always be sure that even the smallest fragments of bones cannot get into your jelly, and the dish itself will turn out soft and tender.

In case of lack of time, you can skip the boned meat through a meat grinder or grind it in a food processor, but you must admit that this is not the same!

The most delicious is jelly, in the preparation of which all family members participated.

Arrange the disassembled meat in pre-prepared shallow forms, decorate it with slices of boiled carrots, green peas, pieces of boiled eggs, herbs, then pour strained broth, cover the forms with lids and take out in the cold until completely solidified.

7. To determine whether the jellied meat is cooked correctly or not , drip broth on your fingers: if the fingers stick together, then the jelly will harden without gelatin.

8. Serve aspic to the table on a large dish, decorated with fresh herbs and boiled vegetables. Take a wide shallow dish and cover it with fresh lettuce leaves.

Lower the form with ready-made jelly for a couple of seconds in hot water and then invert onto the prepared dish. With a very sharp knife, carefully cut your jelly into portions, being careful not to damage the overall shape.

Along the edges of the dish, beautifully arrange circles of boiled carrots, sprigs of fresh herbs and thin slices of lemon. Serve with freshly prepared horseradish and good, spicy Russian mustard.

Little secrets of delicious jelly:

1. Jelly can be garnished with boiled eggs and boiled carrots until it hardens.

2. If you want to cook "soft" jellied meat, you can pass the meat through a meat grinder.

3. If you want to cook a "smooth" jelly, it is better to thoroughly mix the meat with the broth before solidifying.

4. If you want to cook jellied meat in a pressure cooker, the cooking time for jellied meat will be 1.5 - 2 hours.

5. To give a piquant taste, you can add chopped garlic to the jelly before pouring.

6. Serve aspic with horseradish and mustard.

7. In order for the jelly to freeze without adding gelatin, it is necessary not to add water to the broth during cooking. Immediately pour more water and cook over low heat - so that the broth does not boil much.

And by the way! Chill relieves hangovers!

And now a few jelly recipes, choose according to your taste.

Poultry jelly

Pour about 10 liters of water into the pan, which will boil away a little during cooking.

Add 1 kilogram of chicken legs for a bunch and 3-4 turkey drumsticks or half a chicken carcass. First, dip the paws in hot water so that they are soft, clean and remove the film, cut the claws.

When everything is cooked, cool, separate the meat from the bones, fill the bottom of the trays with meat, pour the broth on top. Add spices and vegetables as desired and refrigerate.

Aspic recipe from V. Pokhlebkin.

Rinse one pork head and 4 veal legs, clean and cut into equal parts.

Put everything in a large saucepan, fill with water at the rate of 1 liter per 1 kg. meat, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 6 - 8 hours on the lowest heat, without boiling, so that the volume of water is halved.

An hour before the end of cooking, add 2 onions, 1 carrot, 1 parsley root.

20 minutes before cooking, add 5 bay leaves, 10 black peppercorns, 5 allspice peas, salt to taste.

Remove the prepared meat from the broth, separate from the bones, chop finely and mix with 1 head of finely chopped garlic and a small amount of ground black pepper.

Place the remaining bones back into the broth and cook for another 1 - 1.5 hours. Strain the finished broth thoroughly, and fill it with the meat prepared and laid out in forms.

Cover the molds with a lid and refrigerate for 3-5 hours.

Serve with mustard, horseradish and crushed garlic with sour cream.

Pork leg and chicken jelly

In a deep saucepan, place two prepared pork legs and 400 gr. white chicken meat without skin, pour 2 liters of cold water.

Bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook at the lowest boil for 6 hours.

An hour before the end of cooking, add 1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 bay leaves, 6 black peppercorns and salt to taste. Remove the meat and vegetables from the prepared broth.

Separate the meat from the bones and finely crumble, strain the broth. Put the meat in a jellied dish, sprinkle with finely chopped fresh parsley and garlic on top, pour in the broth and take it out in the cold until completely solidified.

Aspic of beef, chicken and pork ears

Soak one kilogram of beef shank in cold water overnight, then carefully clean with a sharp knife and rinse.

Place the shank in a saucepan, add 500 gr. chicken meat and two pork ears. Pour everything hot water so that it covers the meat by 7 - 8 centimeters.

Bring to a boil, remove foam and reduce heat to low. Add two onions with peel, one carrot, one parsley root, 2-3 bay leaves, 5 black peppercorns, salt to taste.

Boil everything together for 1.5 hours, then remove the vegetables and cook for another 6 - 8 hours on the lowest heat.

Remove the cooked meat from the broth, cool, separate from the bones and chop. Strain the broth thoroughly, add a head of finely chopped garlic to it.

Arrange the meat in forms, sprinkle with ground black pepper and pour over the broth.

Cover the forms with lids and take out in the cold until the jelly is completely solidified.

Before serving, dip the mold in hot water and invert onto a serving platter. Garnish the jelly with slices of boiled carrots and slices of boiled eggs.

An old jelly recipe

Rinse one veal head thoroughly, cut it into equal parts, remove the brains and tongue, and put the pieces of the head in a saucepan.

Add 400 gr. lean beef and 400 gr. any other meat (and preferably game). Add one carrot, one each parsley and celery root, one onion, your favorite spices, a little saffron or turmeric, and salt.

Pour in water so that it covers the meat by 5 - 7 cm, bring to a boil, remove the foam, reduce the heat and cook at the lowest boil for 6 - 8 hours.

An hour after the start of cooking, remove vegetables and roots from the broth. When the meat is well boiled, remove it from the broth to a separate dish, free from the bones and cut into small pieces.

Strain the broth through a thick napkin or towel, add two raw eggs to it, boil again and strain. To the resulting completely clean and transparent broth, add a few drops of lemon juice to clarify.

Arrange the pieces of meat in deep dishes, garnish with slices of boiled carrots and boiled eggs, and then pour in the broth. Refrigerate until completely cold.

Kholodets in Georgian.

Soak six pork legs overnight in cold water, carefully scrape with a sharp knife, separate the hoof.

Put the legs in a deep saucepan, add the onion, parsley root and three bay leaves. Pour in water, bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook at a low boil for 4 hours.

Remove the finished legs from the broth, cut along and carefully remove the bones so that the skin with meat forms a tube.

Strain the broth thoroughly, mix with the juice of two lemons and a bunch of finely chopped cilantro.

Arrange the prepared pork tubes in trays, fill with broth and leave to harden in the cold.

Serve on a platter, garnished with cilantro and lemon slices. Do not forget to offer your guests real Georgian chacha!

Jellied meat from legs

1 kg of meat products,

1-2 bulbs

1 carrot

salt pepper,

bay leaf, garlic

Beef, pork, lamb legs must be singeed. Then we scald them with boiling water, carefully clean them, cut them into pieces and put them in cold water.

Bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook at a low boil (beef legs - 4-5 hours, and pork and lamb - 3-4 hours, that is, until the meat is freely separated from the bones, and the broth becomes sticky ).

At the end of cooking, add the onion (whole), sliced ​​​​carrots, salt, pepper to taste, let it boil over low heat for about 0.5 hours. (If the water boils when boiling, then the jelly will turn cloudy.)

Remove the pan from the heat, strain the broth through a thick sieve or through several layers of gauze. Cut the pre-cooked meat into small pieces or divide along the fibers (optional).

In a deep dish or plates, sprinkle ground black pepper on the bottom, add 1 clove of crushed garlic, spread the meat, circles of boiled carrots (from the broth) and pour strained broth, set to cool in a cold place.

When the jelly thickens, it can be served on the table.

Jellied chicken

chicken - 1/2 pc.;

bay leaf - 1 pc.;

cloves - 1-2 buds;

salt, black peppercorns - to taste;

garlic - 1 clove;

for decoration: egg - 1-2 pcs.;

parsley

We wash the chicken carcass, put it in a saucepan, pour in water (about 3 l), add salt, bay leaf, cloves and black pepper. Cook over low heat for at least 2 hours, periodically removing foam and fat. When the chicken is cooked, strain the broth.

We take out the carcass, remove the meat, cut it into small pieces, if desired, you can add thin "leaves" of a clove of garlic.

The broth must be filtered again so that it becomes completely transparent, without any impurities.

Boil the egg, peel and cut into thin slices. Put a layer of meat on the bottom of the mold for jelly, fill it with broth so that it only slightly exceeds the level of meat. We put in the refrigerator for an hour. Then you need to lay out the egg slices, parsley leaves and pour the broth to the very edges of the mold. Place in refrigerator until cold.

jellied beef

beef leg - 1 pc.

green onion - 40 g

garlic - 2 cloves

pickled mushrooms - 60 g

boiled egg - 1 pc.

soy sauce - 3 tbsp. spoons

ground black and red pepper - to taste

parsley

We wash the beef leg, chop it, fill it with water in a ratio of 1: 3 and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat begins to move away from the bones.

We take out the leg from the broth, separate the pulp from the bones, chop it, put it back into the broth and boil for 15-20 minutes over low heat.

Pour the broth along with the meat into a square jellied dish. Add chopped onion, garlic, mushrooms and egg. Salt, pepper and refrigerate.

Before serving, take the jelly out of the mold, cut into slices and decorate with herbs.

Serve soy sauce separately.

Delicious, beautiful, resilient, festive, folk - all this is it, a classic jellied meat. The dish is really popular in almost every family. And this is despite the fact that any recipe for homemade jelly takes as much as 2 days. The cooking itself will take at least 5 hours, and the cold will do the rest for us.

Kholodets is essentially a frozen broth, in which proteins, collagens, fats and aromatic substances released from meat are maximally concentrated. And that is why both adults and children love this cold appetizer so much. It seems that it is difficult to cook it, but in fact there is nothing easier. Moreover, even the recipe will not take much time, because no one will stand at the stove for 5 hours.

Kholodets is such an interesting appetizer that is best cooked slowly. Moreover, it cannot be done in a hurry. Stock up on two days before holidays or weekends and start cooking with good mood. You can cook jelly from any type of meat:

• mutton;
• rabbit;
• turkey.

It is also possible from fish, but it will already be aspic. And by the way, jelly is one and the same. But aspic and brawn are dishes, although related, but differ in their characteristics.

Since jelly is a strong, properly frozen broth, the cooking technology will always be the same. Here is what the steps look like in general:

1. Preparation of products (wash, peel, cut).
2. Cook the meat until it boils.
3. Cook the meat after boiling over low heat for at least 4 hours.
4. Add vegetables and spices.
5. Add garlic.
6. Turn off after 5-6 hours after boiling and pour into molds. We take it out to the cold.
7. Decorate, serve and serve.

Five Universal Cooking Principles

Regardless of which recipe you choose, some rules will still be common. These tips can be attributed to the heading “note to the hostess”, because they will be useful for cooking aspic and for cooking any meat broth:

1. First of all, jelly is a broth. Therefore, any jelly recipe with a photo gives detailed ideas on how to cook a rich soup step by step. There is nothing complicated here. First, the meat is placed in cold water, then quickly brought to a boil, and then boiled over low heat.
2. During cooking after boiling, we must constantly monitor that the water does not boil. Only a slight, barely noticeable swaying is allowed. Actually this is the principle of cooking any meat broth.
3. Keep the lid on the pot carefully while cooking, otherwise the water will boil away.
4. In continuation of the previous rule: never top up with cold water, it can spoil the taste. In extreme cases, it is allowed to add only in small quantities - so as not to knock down a weak boil.
5. And one more principle - add salt, spices 30-60 minutes before the end. After all, it is in this case that we accurately see the real volume of the resulting broth and definitely do not risk oversalting or overpepping.

That's all - these basic principles are sure to help when cooking any broth. And all other advice, recommendations can be considered only details. For example, what vegetables to take, whether to add ginger, how to decorate with carrots, eggs, etc. The following is a recipe for making classic pork jelly without gelatin - with photos and descriptions step by step of each step.

Classic jellied recipe

Well, now we come to the actual recipe. Let's take the classic jelly as a basis. We will need the following ingredients:

• pork legs - 2 (you can take an additional 2 pork ears);
• pork (or beef) fillet - 800 g (can also be taken on the bone);
• onions and carrots - 2 each;
• garlic - 1 head;
• salt, pepper, spices - at your discretion.

Here is a simple recipe for cooking jellied pork legs without gelatin, in which you can find step by step and with a photo detailed description each stage:

1. Soak the pork legs overnight in plain cool water. So we will remove excess dirt, and most importantly - the meat will become softer.
2. Then we take it out, pour it over with boiling water, carefully clean it with a brush, wash off all the dirt. We cut off the hooves. It is advisable to chop into 2 halves (longitudinally) so that collagen and other substances pass into the broth as much as possible.
3. We lay the legs, ears and meat (fillet) in a pan. It is advisable to take a thick-walled pan that stores heat well. Fill with water so that it completely covers the meat. The layer above it should be 2-3 fingers thick.
4. Bring to a boil, and then immediately reduce the heat. Now the meat will cook for a very long time with a slight, barely noticeable boil. In fact, we should not even see bubbling bubbles - the water will walk weakly on the surface, as if the soup is just boiling. And this will continue for at least 4 hours (but not more than 6). Our task is to remove the foam immediately after boiling, and then periodically remove it as needed.
5. Now peel the carrots. And you don’t have to peel the onion, just wash it, because it’s all the same to throw it away later. And the husk will give a pleasant golden color to the broth. Add vegetables along with all the spices exactly one hour before the end of cooking.
6. Well, that's all, 5-6 hours have passed since the moment of boiling, and the aromas of the holiday have long filled the entire kitchen. Now we turn it off. And just 5 minutes before that, add finely chopped garlic. You don’t need to do this before - all flavors will be lost.
7. Remove vegetables from broth. We take out the meat, grind it in a meat grinder or with a knife.
8. We spread the meat on the bottom of another pan or molds. We lay out the carrots (optional) for beauty. Fill everything with broth, take it out to the cold. You will have to wait all night, but the expectation of a holiday is sometimes better than the holiday itself!

As you can see, there is no gelatin here. Yes, he is not needed. Let's remember history. There is such a beautiful and at the same time believable culinary legend about the origin of jelly. In ancient times, the servants cleaned the master's table, kept all the good unused meat and cooked strong broth from it. Once a bowl of soup was left in the cold. And of course, it is clear what happened. Attention to the question - where did they get the gelatin? It didn't exist then, and it didn't matter. Everything that was needed was “taken” by itself - from the bones of pork and beef legs, as well as from the village chicken (after all, there were no others then).

With or without gelatin

This is one of the most common questions about jelly on the culinary web. Indeed, how to ensure that the broth hardens and takes on the consistency of jelly, and not meat "ice cream"? And besides, what to do if you want to cook a light, diet dish no pigs feet? These questions have very simple answers.

Jelly variant with gelatin

This is the simplest option, which gives us complete freedom of action. After all, absolutely any meat can be used for jelly with gelatin. In any gelatin jelly recipe there are comments (step by step and with a photo), but the technology in any case will be exactly the same as described above. The most important thing is to know exactly how much gelatin to take:

1. If we want to get a trembling jelly, like pudding, we dilute 20 g of gelatin per liter of finished jelly. Let's say we cook in a 5-liter saucepan. And then we take 100 g of gelatin, no more. After all, you need to take into account that 400-500 ml of water will certainly boil away.
2. And if we want to get a firmer consistency, feel free to take at least 2 times more - 40 g per liter of finished broth.

And an equally important question is how to dilute the gelatin when it is added to the broth. Here, too, everything is simple. Firstly, there is always an instruction on the bag. But even if she is lost, we act like this:

1. First of all, the ratio of gelatin and water should be 1:10. We measure the required amount with a spoon and fall asleep in a glass.
2. Pour cold boiled water there (10 times more in volume).
3. Leave for 30-60 minutes, the water should swell.
4. Now put the glass in a water bath for a few minutes. You can simply immerse the glass in a pot of water and put on low heat. Once hot, stir thoroughly until completely dissolved.
5. OK it's all over Now. Gelatin is ready. It is added to hot but not boiling broth when it is ready (or 10-15 minutes before the end). Just keep in mind that gelatin is not boiled. That is why it is added to the cooked broth. We continue to act as usual - pour into molds and take out in the cold.

ADVICE

There is gelatin in powders and plates. For novice cooks, it is easier to work with the powder - it is simply poured into the broth and evenly dissolved. And to work with records you need some experience.

Jelly without gelatin

The recipe for pork jelly without gelatin with a description of the actions step by step and a photo was discussed above. We were able to safely do without this nutritional supplement, since all the necessary substances to give the jelly the desired consistency were already in the meat itself. Or rather - in pork legs (and there are enough of them in the ears too).

But is it really necessary to always take pork? Not at all. Here are some more natural sources of collagen:

1. Beef legs.
2. Bull or cow tails.
3. Lamb legs.
4. Village chicken.

That is, it is quite possible to cook jelly without gelatin - for this you need to take these types of meat. By the way, note that the usual store-bought chicken will not work. This is easy to verify and personal experience: after all chicken soup put in the refrigerator will never turn into jelly. Another thing is a village rooster or chicken. They provide the necessary amounts of collagen, which results in the desired consistency.

Original ways to decorate aspic: 10 ideas for inspiration

So, we figured out how to cook jelly at home - the above step by step recipe With a photo helped to understand what's what. All other recommendations can only be called details. For example, we can:

• choose additional vegetables (bell peppers, canned peas, etc.);
• take additional spices (ginger, cloves, basil, thyme);
• add a boiled chicken egg cut in half (it will be appropriate to look in a chicken jelly).

Well, how to decorate aspic is already a creative matter. And very funny! Especially if you bring small children to help. Here are just some options for jelly with a photo - for inspiration.

1 of 8

Kholodets is one of the most popular cold appetizers on the Russian holiday table. You can also serve it just for dinner, for example, with mashed potatoes instead of store-bought sausage. Therefore, knowing how to cook jelly will be useful to every housewife. The following are the most successful recipes for this dish.

How to cook classic jelly?

A few decades ago, only tails, legs, ears, heads and other parts of meat carcasses were used to prepare jellied meat, which cannot be cooked in any other way than long-term cooking and gelling. But modern housewives have improved classic recipe, adding meat pulp to it, as well as a large amount of spices.

Recipe Ingredients

The classic recipe necessarily includes pork legs and ears. Without these components with gelling components, the jelly simply will not harden. In addition to them, you can use other meat parts of the pork carcass. Many cooks add a whole chicken to the ears and legs, from which you can cut a large amount of meat.

In addition to 2 ears, 2 legs and a large chicken, vegetables are taken to cook the broth. It is enough to use 3 pieces of carrots and onions. Onions, when all the components are cooked, are always thrown out, but carrots can be cut into shapes and beautifully placed in jars with jelly.

Perfectly complements the jelly with chopped garlic (to taste), peppercorns and bay leaves. The finished broth is filtered from all these components and only then poured onto the meat. The liquid is salted at the very beginning of cooking.

How much to cook jelly?

It is difficult to say unequivocally how much to cook aspic. It depends on the size of the cuts of meat, the heat level of the stove and some other factors. On average, the dish is prepared from 4 to 8 hours. In the process, be sure to remove the foam from the surface of the broth.

If a pressure cooker is used, the meat will be ready in 2 hours. True, in this device the broth will turn out to be more cloudy. For transparency, it is recommended to drain the first liquid after boiling.

How to disassemble and serve the dish?

First of all, parts of the carcass are always removed from the broth, meat is removed from them, which must be cut into small pieces. Bones and veins are thrown away. The meat is placed in convenient bowls for jelly, and on top it is poured with strained broth from the pan. When pouring, you can decorate with egg slices, boiled carrots.

The jellied meat is best left in the refrigerator to freeze overnight. Before serving, the top layer of fat is removed from it. You can decorate the jelly with finely chopped greens. Mustard or sour cream and horseradish sauce are served separately.

Fragrant transparent jelly is a frequent guest at many festive feasts and celebrations. For some, the main decoration holiday table- exotic dishes and tropical fruits. But many prefer the traditional, but no less delicious food, to which jelly can be attributed.

It is also often referred to as jelly. However, not every young housewife dares to cook jelly - the recipe is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. The process has its own nuances. In order for the jelly to turn out not only tasty, but also transparent, appetizing and simply beautiful, you must follow some rules for its preparation. Do not neglect these recommendations - and the jelly will definitely become your signature dish, a real decoration of any festive feast.

• The first rule for preparing a transparent and tasty jellied meat is the choice of the basis for the dish. For cooking jelly, you can take almost any meat of your choice - pork, beef, chicken or turkey. However, many experienced housewives recommend to opt for beef.
• Since you can cook beef jelly only from some parts of the carcass, you need to take meat on the bone, the part of the lower leg that is closer to the hoof, or beef shank with veins, cartilage or skin. This choice is due to the fact that they contain special gelling agents that contribute to the rapid solidification of the broth without the use of gelatin and do not make it cloudy in appearance. You can use one or more types of meat.
• When buying a meat set for making jelly, be sure to make sure it is fresh. If the beef has a specific "old" smell, small spots on the surface, visible traces frequent frosts, defrosting or too dark color- it is better to refuse to purchase such a product, since it will not work to cook delicious jelly from it.
• Be sure to ensure that the meat set has approximately the same content of pulp and bones. If there is too much beef pulp, the jelly simply will not freeze. The same goes for too great content bones. Therefore, the most important thing is the measure in everything.

Food preparation

1. So, fresh meat for cooking aspic is chosen. Next, it must be properly prepared.
2. Beef should be soaked - this helps to get rid of traces of blood and provides a beautiful transparent base of the jelly. If the meat is not soaked, the broth will be cloudy and unappetizing. Put the beef in cold water and leave for a couple of hours before boiling the jelly.
3. The recipe of any housewife is the same in that the meat must be completely covered with water, otherwise the remaining blood marks and stiffness of the skin cannot be avoided. After soaking, you can safely proceed to cutting. To do this, it is better to use a special meat knife or a hacksaw with large sharp teeth - it can be used to cut beef bones so that there are no small fragments.
4. If you just chop the beef with a hatchet, then there will definitely be sharp edges on the bones. Next, clean the meat with a knife, freeing it from bone fragments, prepare other ingredients for cooking.

Ingredients needed to make jelly

• Beef or meat set weighing from 2 to 4 kg.
• Pure cold water, better purified.
• Salt to taste (about when to salt the jelly, below).
• 2-3 large onions.
• 2-4 large carrots.
• Garlic cloves - 6-8 pcs.
• Spices and herbs of your choice - bay leaf, black pepper, allspice peas, red pepper, parsley and celery root, dill.

The main stages of cooking jelly

1. Place the cooked meat set in a saucepan and pour clean cold water. It is better to choose purified or filtered water for cooking this dish. If you use ordinary tap water, then there will be a very high probability of a cloudy shade of the broth. In addition, tap water has specific impurities that can give an unpleasant aftertaste to the finished jelly.
2. Water should be taken in a ratio of 1:2 to meat - this means that for 1 kg of beef you will need 2 liters of purified cold water. Lay the pieces of beef very tightly so that the meat is completely covered with water. We put on fire.
3. Many experienced housewives recommend cooking aspic exclusively on low heat - this way you can get a crystal clear and transparent broth. If you cook for big fire, there is a risk that it will become cloudy.
4. After 20-30 minutes, as soon as the broth boils, it is necessary to carefully collect all the foam on its surface. The foam will rise during the entire cooking process, so it is very important to collect it carefully and regularly at all times. Thanks to this process, the broth will remain transparent and beautiful in appearance. Many well-known chefs recommend not collecting foam, but completely draining the first water in which meat was cooked for jelly. Drain all the water, and thoroughly rinse the beef itself under clean running water - this way the meat will be cleaned of the remnants of foam and bone fragments.

How to achieve a transparent color of the finished dish?

A question that torments not only novice housewives: how to make jelly transparent? Everything is simple here.

1. Put the washed parts of the meat set back into the pan and fill with water, chop again if necessary. After that, the pan can be put on a small fire again. Now, when foam or fat appears on the surface of the broth, you can simply remove them with a slotted spoon.
2. As mentioned above, jelly is cooked over low heat - which is why the entire cooking process of this dish can take from 5 to 10 hours. You should not increase the fire in an attempt to speed up the long cooking process - the broth will become cloudy, and your jelly will turn out to be unattractive and unappetizing. In addition, long-term simmering contributes to excellent solidification of the finished jelly - you do not need to use gelatin or other substances.

Rules for adding spices and herbs

1. After the jelly is boiled under the lid for 4-5 hours, it's time to add spices and herbs. This happens until the moment when it will be necessary to salt the jelly (including beef). These ingredients should not be added before the specified time - by the end of cooking they will lose their taste and characteristic spicy aroma.
2. For jelly, it is recommended to use whole vegetables without chopping them. You can take carrots and other vegetables directly in their skins without peeling them, just rinse them well under running water. If you do not like this method, peel the vegetables, but do not cut them into pieces. Many people put a whole unpeeled onion into the jelly that is being prepared - this trick helps to give the broth a light golden hue.
3. Garlic cloves can be put in any form convenient for you - whole or chopped. At the same time, add various spices to the future jelly to your liking - black pepper, allspice, celery root or parsley, bay leaf give a special piquancy and incomparable taste to the dish. But in no case should you be too zealous with the amount of spices - the finished jelly has an incredibly delicate and refined taste, which can be easily spoiled with hot spices.

When should beef jelly be salted?

The basic rule of a tasty and appetizing dish is proper salting. When to salt aspic?

1. Remember that jelly must be salted 20-30 minutes before the end of its preparation. If you salt the dish earlier, the result will certainly disappoint you. Meat absorbs a lot of salt. And even a small amount of it, sprinkled at the beginning of cooking, can make your dish simply inedible.
2. In addition, the broth must be simmered for at least 5 hours - during this time the water in the pan boils away strongly, so the concentration of salt in the broth becomes excessive. Best Option when to salt the jelly is half an hour before the end of cooking.

Grinding cooked meat properly

1. After the jelly is cooked, turn off the heat and carefully remove the cooked meat from the pan with a slotted spoon. Whole onions and carrots can also be removed - they have already fulfilled their purpose. Let the cooked meat cool slightly.
2. Next, the cooked meat must be carefully chopped. This can be done simply with your hands or use a small knife, with which you can carefully separate the pulp from the bones and cartilage. Many people prefer to use a food processor or a meat grinder to grind meat, but in the case of cooking jellied meat, it is better to avoid such methods, since with such a method of grinding, the finished dish loses its unique exquisite taste.
3. Make sure that there are no small bones, remnants of skins or cartilage in the finished meat. Grind garlic cloves through a press and mix them with the resulting meat. It is better not to cut the garlic with a knife, but to press it through a special press - this way it mixes better with beef, there will be no large sloppy pieces.

Pour cooked meat properly

1. At the bottom of deep plates or trays, place chopped meat and mixed with garlic. If you want to make your culinary creation brighter and more original, you can put pieces of boiled yolk or carrots on the bottom of the plates, as well as any other products of your choice.
2. The meat must be poured with the resulting salty broth (we have already mentioned when to salt the jelly). To do this, it should be carefully filtered through a fine sieve or gauze folded in half. Thus, small pieces of cartilage and bones, excess fat are removed from the broth. As a result, it acquires an even, pure color and a pleasant shade.
3. Heat the strained broth a little in a saucepan over low heat and pour it into the molds with cooked meat. If you are using gelatin when preparing jellied meat, it's time to add this ingredient to the broth as well. To do this, take a glass with already prepared and strained broth, dilute one bag of gelatin in it and add the resulting mixture to the rest of the broth before pouring it into molds.

Aspic freezing

It would seem that for housewives the most controversial issue is the question of when to salt the jelly. But it is not so. There is another stage in the preparation of this dish, which raises a lot of questions - freezing.

1. For complete solidification of jelly, a fairly significant amount of time is required - from 4 to 10 hours. You can leave the molds with a fragrant meat dish for the whole night. In order for the cooked jelly to freeze, it will need a cool temperature, which is below room temperature. You can leave the dish on the balcony or on the windowsill - but these places are completely unsuitable for winter time of the year. At low temperatures, the delicate jelly left on the balcony will simply freeze and completely lose its unsurpassed delicate taste. The best option for quick and high-quality solidification of jelly is a refrigerator.
2. It is better not to put dishes with beef jelly on the top shelf of the refrigerator - as you know, here is the lowest temperature zone, and your meat delicacy will simply freeze. It is not recommended to place molds with beef jelly on the lower shelves of the refrigerator - here, on the contrary, it will not harden. The best choice will become the middle shelf with optimal temperature conditions.

So, you have learned how to cook and when to salt the jelly. And everything was done according to the recipe. Now your culinary masterpiece is ready, but what to serve it with? The traditional answer to this question is spicy sauces, mustard, horseradish or adjika. You can serve a delicate meat dish with a little soy sauce - it will add a special piquancy to the jelly. A very tasty combination will be jelly served with pickled mushrooms or cucumbers, fresh or canned tomatoes, salad of fresh vegetables with herbs to your taste.

The most important nuances

To make beef jelly really tasty and appetizing, follow a few simple rules its preparation.

• The basic rule of how to make jelly transparent - in any case, do not add water to meat that is already being cooked. If a new portion of water is added to the broth during the cooking process, it will lose its beautiful transparent color and become cloudy. In addition, such a broth almost never freezes without the addition of gelatin. In this case, it is best to immediately pour a little into the beef pan. more water than you need - when boiling, the required amount of broth will remain, and its color will not suffer at all.
• Let's repeat when to salt the jelly when cooking. During the preparation of a delicate meat delicacy, you should not do this at the beginning or middle of the process. When cooking, the broth boils away and becomes more saturated, the salt concentration increases significantly. That is why even a small pinch thrown into a pan with jelly at the beginning of cooking can make it salty and inedible.
• Many people do not like the specific fatty taste that ready-made beef or pork jelly can have. A simple way to avoid such an unpleasant phenomenon is to drain the first water in which the meat was cooked. So you will not only remove excess fat from the meat broth, but also make the finished dish less high-calorie and heavy on the stomach.
• Do not try to put 10 kg of various meat products in a pot with broth. Remember that the water in the pan should cover the meat by at least 2-3 cm. This is necessary in order to get the required amount of clean and aromatic broth as a result. If initially there is too much water in the pan, it will not boil away during the cooking process, and the broth will harden poorly. At the same time, if you add too little water, the opposite problem will arise - it will quickly boil away and you will have to add a new portion of water to the pan. In this case, the appearance of an unpleasant cloudy shade in the finished meat dish cannot be avoided.
• 5-10 hours - so much you need to cook aspic. The recipe does not tolerate haste and sloppiness.
• Many experienced housewives recommend not throwing away meat cartilage and skins that you get after you finish cooking beef. Finely chop these foods with a knife, meat grinder or food processor, then gently mix the mixture into the cooked beef. As you know, cartilage and veins contain special gelling substances that contribute to the rapid solidification of the finished jelly without the use of gelatin. At the same time, the taste of a delicate dish does not worsen at all.

And finally

Since cooking delicious jelly is a painstaking task and requires a certain skill, you should not be upset if your first jelly turned out not quite the way you expected. A little culinary practice and patience - and your dish will become the main decoration of any holiday table.

How to cook jelly step by step recipe in a regular saucepan

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