1. How to make jelly transparent
The secret to making crystal clear jelly is to prepare ahead of time. Rinse the purchased meat thoroughly. To do this, put pork legs, chicken, beef, or other meat ingredients according to the recipe in a saucepan. Leave overnight. The next morning, put the meat out of the pan and rinse with running water.
When cooking, remove the foam with a slotted spoon. Then drain the boiled water, rinse the pan and boil the meat again in freshwater. Let the finished broth brew and cool, strain 2-3 times through a sieve with gauze.
2. How to make jelly freeze
Cook jelly on meat with a high content of collagen. There is a lot of it in the lower parts of pork and beef carcasses, they are also called shanks or shanks. The necks or paws of birds are also suitable. Two kilograms of such meat is enough for 4 liters of water.
Interesting fact
Collagen is the glue that holds all the connective tissues in the body together. When the skin and bones of animals are cooked for a long time, gelatin is formed, which is necessary for solidification.
3. How much to cook jelly
To make the dish hearty, cook it for at least 5-8 hours. The longer the meat is cooked, the more collagen will be released, which means that the jelly will grab better.
4. How to quickly cook jelly
If you do not want to wait a day, there is an expressway to cook aspic on chicken meat with the addition of gelatin. To do this, you need boiled carrots, an egg, green peas, dill, parsley and other herbs to taste. This recipe will take three hours.
5. How to decorate aspic
Cut carrots in the form of circles, snowflakes, hearts. Sprinkle with herbs, peas, or corn on top. Edible star-shaped decorations can be added on top of the frozen jelly.
6. How long does the jelly freeze
Cover the finished dish with a lid or cling film and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Keep no more than two days and serve with horseradish.
Advice
So that the jelly can be easily removed from the mold, hold the mold in warm water for several minutes.
7. What to do if the jelly is not frozen
Buy a bag of gelatin. Strain the cooled broth through a sieve, pour it into a saucepan, and heat it up. Then dilute the gelatin in warm water and mix with the broth. So you save the dish, but in consistency, it will look more like aspic than jelly.
What can be done?
Prepare homemade filling. Unlike jelly, it is made from ready-made meat. Add vegetables or eggs. It turns out an elegant dish for the festive table.