Express jellied pork with gelatin. How to dilute gelatin: tips for making desserts, aspics and aspics

For many housewives, preparing a surprisingly tasty jelly is not difficult. What is the secret of their signature dish? Gelling substances from bones and cartilage end up in the broth, but cooking jellied meat is a rather lengthy process. To save time, cooks add soluble gelatin to the broth, and the correct preparation of the solution is one of those nuances that you should know about if you are making jelly.

Methods for dissolving gelatin
The instructions placed on the packaging of gelatin do not always indicate the methods for preparing a solution specifically for jellied meat. So let's look at a few options.

1. On the stove. Prepare the broth, remove the meat from it. Soak gelatin (2 or 3 tablespoons) in a bowl of cold water, preferably boiled, for 20 minutes. Place the bowl of gelatin mixture in a saucepan or saucepan where the water is already boiling. Stir continuously so that the gelatin does not burn. The mixture should become homogeneous. Pour the prepared gelatin into the broth, leave to cool in the refrigerator.
   
2. In the microwave. Dissolve the same amount of gelatin as in the first option in boiled water, in a microwave-safe dish. Leave for 40 minutes, boil in the microwave and pour the resulting gelatin mixture into the hot broth.
   
3. For those who are not in a hurry. Stir gelatin in a glass of cold water and leave for an hour and a half to swell. Pour the mixture into a saucepan or bowl and completely dissolve the gelatin while stirring over low heat. As soon as you remove the liquid from the heat, strain through cheesecloth, then pour into the broth and stir. Secondary filtering for an hour and a half (already with broth) is not necessary.
   

Helpful Hints
Edible gelatin is sold in the form of powder, leaves, grains. If you want to cook jelly and also value time, choose powdered gelatin, as it dissolves quickly.

How to check the consistency of gelatin? So that the jelly does not become “rubber”, combine a spoonful of the finished mixture with the broth and dip your fingers in this solution. If the fingers stick to each other, and you can unstick them only with a little effort, you have got the gelatin of the desired consistency. If the "stickiness test" fails, just add some more dissolved gelatin to the mixture.

There is a universal recommendation that will help you get the jelly of the required density. If you dissolve 20 g of gelatin in a liter of water, you will get a "trembling" jelly. And if you need a jelly of such density that it is easy to cut, take from 40 to 60 g per liter of water.

Important: if you want to cool the gelatin solution, do not leave it in the freezer, otherwise it will crystallize.

If you want to cook jelly with vegetables, you need to cut the vegetables into smaller pieces. Gelatin slips off coarsely chopped pieces, and a beautiful dish will not work.

Aspic with gelatin added to it will freeze perfectly if the broth for it is boiled from meat on the bone. After all, the bone already contains natural gelatin.

Homemade jelly, aspic or jelly are traditional dishes of Russian cuisine, which are often prepared for holidays, for example, for the New Year, or served on weekdays. Various types of meat are used for cooking: pork, beef, chicken. Some housewives make jelly from fish. A distinctive feature of the dishes is a jelly-like structure with the addition of pieces of meat, vegetables and spices.

What is gelatin

To obtain a jelly-like mass of jelly, cartilage, bones, and skin are used. Shanks, pig heads, hooves and other bony parts of animals are taken for this. They contain sticky substances that have an important property. They help the broth turn into a dense, elastic jelly when cooled. If there are few or no such parts, then jelly can be cooked from gelatin and meat pulp.

Gelatin is made from various animal parts by collagen denaturation. The technological method was discovered by Peter Cooper in the 18th century. In production, those parts are taken that are used by chefs when preparing natural jelly. These are bones, cartilage, tendons of cattle and fish. The protein extract from them is called gelatin. Note to vegetarians: desserts on this basis are not for you, take vegetable analogues, such as agar-agar or pectin.

Dishes based on this substance of animal origin should be included in the diet of those who have diseases of the tendons and cartilage. It is used not only in cooking. Gelatin is used by pharmaceutical companies in the manufacture of drugs, where it is used to make capsules and drug bases. In cosmetology, it is actively used as a component of masks, creams, lotions. Collagen plays the role of a rejuvenating substance.

Edible gelatin is sold in two forms:

1. Granulated. Outwardly, it is a small balls up to 1-2 mm in diameter from light yellow to brownish.
2. Plates. Sold in the form of thin plates of a yellowish-brown color.

When to add gelatin for jelly

Instant gelatin in the manufacture of jelly is added at the end. First you need to cook the meat, it takes an hour and a half. During this time, you need to add vegetables: onions, carrots, herbs. After the time has elapsed, the meat is removed from the broth and divided into small pieces. The broth must be filtered - fragments from the bones may remain. Gelatin powder is added to the filtered yushka. The resulting base should be poured over the meat, laid out in portions, and only then removed in the cold to solidify.

Breeding methods

There are several ways to dilute the powder:

1. In cold water. Take 1 glass of water, soak the granules. When the mass swells, put it in the microwave at minimum power. It should turn into a homogeneous colorless liquid. Check that there are no grains. Once everything is dissolved, pour the liquid into the broth and mix thoroughly. Instead of a microwave, you can use a water bath.
2. In the broth. Here the gelatin is diluted in the broth itself. Take a glass of liquid, cool, pour out the powder and wait an hour until completely dissolved. Pour the mixture in a thin stream into the remaining broth and stir.

How to cook jelly with gelatin

The recipe for jelly on gelatin is simple. You will need:

• meat (beef, pork, chicken) - 1.5 kg;
• onions - 3 pcs.;
• carrots - 2 pcs.;
• spices - to choose from;
• salt - to taste;
• gelatin - 20-60 grams per liter of broth (depending on the desired strength).

Cooking:

• Pour the meat with 3.5 liters of water in an enamel saucepan.
• When the water boils, drain it and fill with new water.
• Salt, add spices.
• After an hour, add onions cut in half and carrots chopped randomly.
• Leave to simmer for one hour. Don't forget to remove the scale with a slotted spoon.
• Put the meat, strain the broth through cheesecloth.
• Boil gelatin in one glass of hot water. Wait for swelling. Mix with the rest of the broth.
• Cut up the meat. Sort into shapes. For containers, you can take plastic or metal trays, vessels, bowls, silicone molds. Add boiled carrots, if desired, put some greens.
• Pour the contents of the molds with the broth.
• Put it in the refrigerator, wait until it hardens.

Correct Proportions

If you want to know how much gelatin to add to jelly, then remember the correct proportions:

• "Trembling" jelly. If you want to make a “weak” jelly that will shake on a spoon, then the amount of cooking powder per liter of liquid will be 20 grams.
• Medium elasticity. If your goal is a classic version of the dish, then you will need more gelatin. Put 40 grams of dry matter per liter of broth.
• Hard cold. Such jelly is poured into molds, and after hardening, they are taken out and laid upside down on a flat plate. The dish can be beautifully cut with a knife, like a cake. If you pour jelly into silicone molds or use cupcake molds for this, you can get a portioned dish. The amount of gelatin per liter of broth will be 60 grams.

The following tips from chefs will come in handy for those who decide to cook a delicious and healthy jelly with gelatin:

1. As soon as the meat boils, drain the first broth and collect new water. The first broth is dirty, very fatty and not at all dietary. It collects harmful substances that come out of the meat first.
2. If you decide to buy gelatin, pay attention to the expiration date indicated on the package. Expired gelatin can give the dish an unpleasant taste, or the jelly on it does not thicken at all.
3. Do not boil liquid with diluted gelatin. Boiling will ruin the dish.
4. Cooling of jellied meat should be carried out in the refrigerator - do not use a freezer, otherwise the composition will crystallize.

Video

Kholodets was still prepared in Rus'. Previously, and even now, almost no festive table can do without it. Aspic, or in other words, jelly, is prepared from various types of meat: pork, beef, poultry, as well as various meat combinations, including jellied meat using gelatin. And how to cook jelly with gelatin? Let's look at a Russian and favorite dish, chicken jelly.

Jellied gelatin recipe

In order to prepare a recipe for jelly with gelatin, you will need the following set of products:

• 5 kilograms of chicken meat (wings, thighs, legs or whole carcass);
• 1 kg of chicken feet (for the formation of jelly);
• 2 carrots;
• 2 heads of onions;
• 2 Bulgarian sweet peppers;
• 1 packet of gelatin;
• 3-4 garlic cloves;
• salt and spices to taste.

How to cook jelly with gelatin - recipe

1. Poultry meat, to prepare jellied meat with gelatin, rinse well. Clean the paws. If you take a whole chicken carcass for jelly, cut it into 4 parts. Wash and clean vegetables. Then put all the pieces of meat and paws in a large saucepan along with vegetables, pour cold water over it and put it on the fire to boil.
2. When the jelly boils, scale will form - it must be removed with a slotted spoon. When the jelly broth boils, reduce the heat to a minimum, at which the boiling process will continue. After removing the scale, salt and add spices to taste.
3. Jellied chicken should be cooked for at least 4 hours under a tightly closed lid. Check readiness periodically. When the meat for jelly will easily fall behind the bones - the jelly is ready, remove from heat.
4. As soon as the jelly is cooked, you need to pull out all the pieces of meat and chicken legs with a slotted spoon. It is better to put the meat for jelly in a colander so that all the broth is drained from it.
5. In the meantime, while the meat is cooling, the broth must be filtered through a strainer so that small bones and pieces of boiled vegetables do not get into it.
6. The resulting chicken broth, when it hardens, will be too tender and will not hold its shape. To avoid this trouble, chicken jelly is boiled with the addition of gelatin.

Using gelatin for jelly

1. Gelatin is added to aspic, observing the following proportion: one tablespoon of powder per 3 liters of liquid. This proportion will not affect the taste of the finished product. When gelatin is added, the fat will not stand out during solidification, but will be evenly distributed throughout the volume. However, to prepare jelly, gelatin should first be soaked in 0.5 cups of water, and then poured into the strained broth and bring it all back to a boil.
2. Then, when the meat has already cooled down enough, you need to separate it from the bones and chop finely. You can also cut the meat of the paws into the jelly, after removing the skin from them.
3. Arrange meat for jelly from gelatin into shapes. Squeeze the garlic into the broth and strain the broth through a sieve again. Carefully pour the resulting broth over the meat. You can decorate jellied meat with gelatin with a boiled egg or carrots.
4. Remove the jelly with gelatin in a cold place to harden (in no case put in the freezer). After a few hours, you can serve.

Food and drink May 8, 2014

Kholodets is a traditional cold appetizer of Russian cuisine. The dish is prepared infrequently. Basically, it is served at the festive table.

In the seventeenth century, a dish was called jelly, which was prepared in wealthy Russian families on the second day after a big feast. To do this, the remains of meat products from the first day of the holiday were collected together, crushed and, filled with broth, cooled in a glacier. The appearance of such food did not cause much appetite, so the servants were fed it.

Aspic

In times of great popularity of the French way of life in Russia, many foreign specialists were invited to the country, including chefs. French cuisine had a similar dish called galantine. It was based on a thick, rich broth made from several varieties of meat and game, to which ready-made meat products ground into minced meat were added. Brought to taste with spices and raw eggs. The resulting mixture was covered with a press and kept in the cold.

Based on the principle of preparing galantine, French chefs partially changed the technology for preparing jellied meat, as a result of which jelly appeared. Thanks to the clarification of the broth and the introduction of lemon zest and saffron into it, ordinary jelly began to look unusually beautiful and appetizing. The new dish was considered exquisite, it was served in rich houses. They began to make jelly not only from meat, but also from fish products: sturgeon, sterlet, pike.

Traditional jelly remained on the menu of ordinary people. They cooked it in the winter between large posts. In order for the jelly to solidify well, meat legs (shanks), heads, ears and lips were necessarily put in the broth. These products contain a large amount of gelling substances, due to which the jelly is very strong.

Modern Russian cuisine has diversified the old dish with unusual ingredients. Today, no one can be surprised with jelly from a rooster, lamb, river fish. Seafood dishes, vegetables and fruits look a little exotic. Since they do not contain substances that contribute to solidification, a special additive, gelatin, has to be introduced into dishes.

This is a viscous protein obtained by prolonged digestion of animal collagen (connective tissue). The product is healthy and contains phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen. The presence of glycine in gelatin, a natural source of energy, improves the vital activity of the body.

Translated from Latin, gelatin (gelatus) means “frozen” or “frozen”. When dried, the product looks like a transparent granular yellowish powder without taste and smell. The food industry also produces gelatin plates.

The scope of gelatin is quite wide. In the food industry, it is used in the manufacture of confectionery: marmalade, marshmallows, jelly. In public catering, gelatin is used to speed up the process of solidification of jelly, jelly, jellied dishes.

It is worth considering separately how to cook jelly with gelatin. For a modern person, such a dish as jelly is still a festive meal. But not at all because of the high cost of products, but because of the long cooking process. In the current fast-paced life, there is simply not enough time for a long and slow digestion of the broth with its subsequent unhurried solidification. To speed up the process of preparing a delicious dish, gelatin comes to the rescue.

How to dilute gelatin for jelly?

Usually on the packaging there are instructions for the correct use of the instant powder. It should be diluted with chilled boiled water in a ratio of one to five, and then left to swell for ten minutes. Then add to the hot broth and mix thoroughly.

How to dilute gelatin for jelly correctly? It is important to always remember that the prepared gelatin solution should be introduced into the boiling broth in a thin continuous stream. The liquid must be vigorously stirred to prevent the formation of lumps. Pouring the broth for solidification should be only after cooling to room temperature. To make the dish appetizing and tasty, you need to know how to dilute gelatin for jelly correctly.

Related videos

Not a bad option

It is worth considering another useful method. So, how to add gelatin to jelly? Dissolve the gelatin sheet in cold water for half an hour. Then place in a water bath and heat until completely dissolved.

Pour the resulting solution into the prepared meat broth. Stirring continuously, bring the liquid to a boil. Care must be taken to ensure that the gelatin does not stick to the bottom of the dish. Pour boiled meat with strained broth and send to cool.

To prepare a delicious and transparent chicken jelly, you need to know how to dilute gelatin for jelly. It is necessary to insist dry powder in cold broth for an hour. Then garlic, spices, salt are added to the solution, after which it is diluted with a liter of broth and heated without boiling.

Important note

To understand how much gelatin should be added to the jelly for normal solidification, you should always try the resulting solution. One spoonful of melted gelatin should be mixed with a small amount of broth and dip your fingers into it. If they stick together and separate with little effort, then there is enough of everything in the jelly. An excess of gelling agent can spoil the jelly, turning it into a rubber mass.

Housewives often cook both jelly and aspic. And both of these dishes are very in demand in any season of the year. But they differ in the method of preparation and composition of the products. You need to know the fact that gelatin is not actually added to jelly if it is cook according to the rules and from the components necessary for jelly. These should be jelly-forming meat products, namely legs, head, drumstick and even chicken wings.

Gelatin is used when aspic is cooked, that is, meat is cooked there, and not those products that are used to make jellied meat.

Well, if you are not sure that the cooked jelly will harden by you, then you introduce gelatin into the broth when the jelly is already cooked and the broth has cooled down. he will swell.

And then you lay out the finished meat products on plates, and then you fill them with broth in which gelatin was dissolved.

I don’t add gelatin to the jelly, because the broth usually becomes a jelly-like mass itself. It's just very important to cook pork ears, legs, tail, knuckle. They give the broth the opportunity to thicken and solidify. Well, add the meat you like.



However, if you still do not rely on your broth, then dilute the gelatin (within one pack, if there is a lot of broth), it is better with the same broth, let it stand and swell.

Then lay out the meat in forms, add your favorite spices (black pepper, garlic), whoever loves, add boiled carrots and half a hard-boiled egg.

During this time, let the broth cool down. Then enter the swollen gelatin into it, stir well, let stand and pour into molds.

Usually gelatin is added to jelly during cooking, it is at this moment that gelatin dissolves easily, but you can also add gelatin to ready-made, but not frozen jelly if gelatin is dissolved separately in water.

Properly prepared jelly does not need gelatin, because it is cooked from meat and bones with a lot of cartilage. It is from the cartilage, the shank that the hardening gelling mass is obtained.

But they almost don’t put cartilage in the aspic so that the aspic is transparent, therefore gelatin is needed there for solidification.

Gelatin is chemical and natural. Natural has a taste of jelly and is not suitable for fruit jellies, and besides, you need to remember that you can’t boil it! From this, it also loses its gelling properties a little, and most importantly, it acquires the taste of glue.

Gelatin is poured with boiled water in advance to swell, so after adding it, the taste of the broth will be less salty.

Therefore, it is best after boiling the strained broth, when the bones from the jelly or aspic have already been removed and it is salted as it should, let it boil for 10 minutes and pour a couple of glasses to cool. Then dilute gelatin in them and let it brew for at least half an hour.

But then adding it to the broth is still better after the aspic or aspic is ready and the stove is turned off. Added, mixed and wait five minutes to disperse. And only now you can pour into molds.

When preparing jellied meat, you can do without gelatin at all, unless of course you want to make this dish from ordinary water. If your jelly contains beef and pork legs (chicken legs are also suitable) and you cook all this over low heat for four to five hours, then you won’t need gelatin at all, as the broth will harden without it.

Well, if you still want to add it, then you need to do this at the very end of cooking, that is, before you pour your brew into molds.

Usually gelatin is not added to jelly. It freezes perfectly by itself, unless, of course, everything is cooked correctly. 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.

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

However, the most important component of meat jelly was and remains 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.

1. Determining with additional types of meat

if you use pork legs for a gelling effect, then for the meat part, take beef tenderloin and a little chicken or turkey meat.

1. 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. E

1. For the vegetable part of the jelly, onions, carrots, herbs and celery or parsley stalks are used.

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. Due to the different ways of laying vegetables, the taste of the finished dish gets slight differences.

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.

1. An hour before the end of cooking, the jelly must be salted. This is the most important secret of cooking jelly, since lightly 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!

1. 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 moment 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.

1. To determine whether the jelly is cooked correctly or not, drop the broth on your fingers: if the fingers stick together, then the jelly will harden without gelatin.
2. 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.

• In order for the gelatin to make the jellied meat jelly-like, it is necessary that it be boiled in the broth, that is, the gelatin must be added before the jellied mass boils, then the gelatin will completely dissolve and, as a result of cooling, will solidify in the desired form.

  in theory, it is not needed there, but if, of course, you doubt that it will harden well, it happens that there is more meat than bones, then after cooking everything, disassemble the meat, strain the broth and add the already dissolved gelatin to the container where it will solidify.

  I don’t add gelatin to jelly, just when cooking it, in addition to meat, I add pork knuckles - this is the lower part of the leg, but not the hooves.

  When the meat is boiled and easily falls behind the bones, we filter the broth, disassemble the meat and put it in containers into which we will pour the broth. Finely chop the garlic and add to the meat. We dilute the gelatin according to the instructions, add to the broth that has cooled down a little, mix and pour the molds. We let it cool by removing it in a cold place and the jelly is ready.

  If the jelly does not freeze without gelatin (not enough rich bones, a lot of meat, not bones, the bones did not cook enough time, the water boiled away during cooking and had to be added, it turned out not enough bones and meat for a large amount of water - there can be many reasons and they are very diverse) you can add some gelatin. As a rule, 0.5-1 sachet of gelatin is enough for a large 3-5-liter jellied pot. Pre-diluted according to the instructions, the gelatin is added to the pot with the broth and mixed just before the broth is poured into molds. It is better when the meat and bones have already been taken out of the broth and sorted into shapes.

  Gelatin should be added to the broth, when there is no longer meat in it, that is, in the disassembled meat prepared for pouring. Gelatin must first be soaked for half an hour. You can soak in the same broth, pouring a couple of glasses. Next, add gelatin to the broth, stir well, bringing to a boil. And after that you can pour it into bowls with meat.