Kholodets Recipe – Ukrainian Jellied Meat

This is the Kholodets recipe of my gradmom. She said: If the kholodets is transparent and gets jellied – be sure your kholodets is perfect! To make the kholodets jelly besides the meat there should be cartilage (hocks, ears, cloven hooves).

Soak the meat and bones with cold water for min 4 hours or even for a night.

Pour over the bones with cartilage 3 l of fresh cold water, bring to a boil and skim off the scum. Regulate the heat so that a few bubbles rise to the surface and simmer for about 4 hours checking to ensure there’s no vigorous boiling that causes the opaqueness of the broth.

Add the meat, skim off any scum again and simmer for about 1,5 hours. Then add peeled carrot and unpeeled onion – it will give the broth a nice shade of amber. Season the broth with black pepper corns, bay leaves and keep simmering for about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, add salt, chopped garlic and strain the stock.

Take out all bones and meat, thoroughly cut off all jelly parts from the bones, cut the meat into chunky pieces, arrange in soup plates or bowls, pour over the broth and leave it for minimum 4 hours or until meat jelly is all molded in a fridge. Kholodets tastes great with beets and horseradish relish (burachky) and other sharp sauces.

More recipes of Ukrainian cuisine: Radish salad, Varenyky, Kruchenyky, Stuffed Fish