Kholodets is a traditional dish, which is a cold meat jelly, usually prepared on the basis of broth from meat and bones. It has a long history and occupies a special place in Russian cuisine, as well as associated with home comfort and family holidays.
Preparation of kholodets begins with boiling meat, most often used pork, beef or chicken. Bones, meat and various seasonings are boiled for a long time, which allows to extract from them gelling substances such as collagen. In addition, vegetables and spices are added to the broth, giving the dish a depth of flavor and aroma.
Kholodets is often served at the holiday table, accompanied by mustard, horseradish or vinegar. This dish can serve as an appetizer or as the main treat.
Ingredients:
- Beef shanks on the bone – 800 g;
- Meat (beef, shank) – 1 kg;
- Chicken thighs – 800 g;
- Pork knuckle – 1,5 kg;
- Water – 4800 ml;
- Carrots – 1 pc;
- Onion – 1 pc;
- Laurel leaf – 2 pcs;
- Garlic – 4 cloves;
- Peppercorns – ¼ tsp;
- Allspice – ¼ tsp;
- Cloves – 1 pc;
- Salt – 2 tbsp.
Preparation of cold meat:
Soak all the meat for a few hours in cold water. On pork knuckles make small cuts to the bone.
Put all the meat in a saucepan with cold water and cook until a lot of foam is formed. Remove the meat from the pot into a separate container, drain the broth with foam.
Thoroughly rinse the pot of foam, and then wash the meat. Put the meat back into the pot and pour cold water again.
Bring the meat to a boil on high heat, add 1 tbsp. salt, reduce the heat to medium.
When the bro
th
begins to boil, reduce the heat to low. Leave the meat to languish in the broth with the lid not completely closed for 4 hours.
After 4 hours add bay leaf, peppercorns, oregano pepper, cloves, salt to the broth. Before sending the vegetables to the broth, cook them separately for a few minutes.
Put carrots and onions in the broth, cook for another 2 hours. Next, remove the top layer of fat from the broth and take out the bay leaf, peppercorns and vegetables.
Put the meat separately, chop the garlic finely into the broth
.
After a couple of minutes, strain the broth through a sieve and a gauze cloth, so that there were no remnants of spices and garlic.
Remove the remaining fat from the top of the broth
.
We divide the meat into small fibers, salt to taste.
Put the meat in the forms and pour the broth, leave to cool to room temperature. Then remove the cold water to the refrigerator until hardening.
This is how you get a delicious rich cholodets without the use of gelatin. The main thing is not to put it in the freezer until it hardens.
