How Long to Boil Kholodets (Meat Jelly): Pork, Beef and Chicken

Kholodets sets thanks to gelatine that passes into the broth from skin, cartilage and tendons. Collagen starts to break down at 60-65 °C, but it takes hours of gentle simmering to turn it fully into gelatine. The older the animal, the tougher the collagen and the longer the cooking. Time is counted from the boil.

A broiler without its feet and wings gives almost no gelatine, so the jelly sets poorly. Add chicken feet, wings or necks, about a third of the weight of the meat, or a pork trotter. No reliable source gives times for turkey, so go by how tender the meat is and test the broth.

• The meat falls off the bones by itself and the cartilage is soft.
• The broth is sticky: dip your fingers in, let them dry and they stick together.
• The saucer test: pour a little broth onto a cold saucer and put it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. If it sets into jelly, the kholodets is ready. If not, cook for another hour and test again.
• The broth has reduced by about half.

1. Soak pork trotters and knuckle in cold water for 2-3 hours or overnight, always in the fridge. Scrape the skin with a knife and singe off any bristles.
2. Cover the meat with cold water and bring it to the boil. For a clear broth, pour off the water after 10 minutes and rinse the meat.
3. Cover with fresh cold water by 4-6 cm: about 2 litres of water per kilogram of meat.
4. Bring to the boil, skim off the foam and turn the heat to the lowest setting: the surface should only tremble, with no bubbles. Do not stir.
5. Cover, leaving a gap. If a lot of water boils away, top up with a little boiling water.
6. Add chicken or turkey 2-3 hours before the end if you are cooking it with pork trotters.
7. Add a carrot, an onion and parsley root 1-1.5 hours before the end. Leave the onion skin on for a golden broth.
8. Add salt 30-60 minutes before the end: about 20 g per kilogram of finished kholodets. Add bay leaves and peppercorns at the same time.
9. Lift out the meat and strain the broth through a sieve lined with 2-3 layers of muslin. Pull the meat off the bones, remove the cartilage and chop it.
10. Spread the meat in shallow moulds, add crushed garlic and pour over the broth. Garlic goes in after cooking.
11. Cool the moulds to room temperature within 1-2 hours, for example in cold water, and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.

The catering standard is 2 litres of cold water per kilogram of meat by-products, 1:2 by weight. The water should cover the meat by 4-6 cm. Over 6-8 hours it reduces by about half and the gelatine becomes more concentrated. Too much water gives a runny jelly; too little leaves the meat above the water. Trotters and other parts with skin and cartilage should make up at least a third of the total weight of meat.

• Too much water. There is too little gelatine per litre of broth.
• Too few trotters, skin or cartilage. Lean meat alone gives no gelatine.
• Not cooked long enough. The collagen had no time to pass into the broth.
• Not chilled long enough. Kholodets needs 6-8 hours in the fridge.

How to fix it. Melt the kholodets, strain the broth and bring it to the boil. Let it cool until warm, 20-25 minutes. Soak gelatine in cold water: 20-25 g per litre of broth, as the packet says. Stir it into the warm broth and do not boil it again: boiling weakens gelatine. Pour it over the meat and chill again. Without gelatine, you can simmer the broth with chicken feet, 300 g per litre, for another 3-4 hours, or reduce it by a third.

• Soak the meat in cold water in the fridge to draw out the blood.
• Discard the first water after the boil and rinse the meat.
• Skim the foam before and right after the boil.
• Keep the heat as low as possible: a hard boil mixes fat and protein into the broth and clouds it.
• Do not stir the meat while it cooks.
• Strain the broth through muslin and spoon off the set fat from the top.

Pressure cooker

Under pressure water boils at about 120 °C, and gelatine passes into the broth many times faster. A stovetop "Afghan kazan" is also a pressure cooker.

• Pork trotters and knuckle: 1-1.5 hours at pressure.
• Beef feet and shank: 1.5-2 hours.
• Chicken with feet: 50-60 minutes.
• Do not fill above the max line, usually two thirds of the pot.
• Let the pressure release naturally: a quick release makes the broth spurt through the valve.
• Manufacturers call their kholodets programmes a guide only, so test the broth on a saucer the first time.

Multicooker

• "Stew" or "Kholodets" mode: 4-5 hours for pork trotters, 5-6 hours with beef.
• The water should cover the meat by 3-4 cm but stay below the max line.
• Add vegetables 1 hour before the end and salt 30 minutes before.

Full recipe: jellied meat in a multicooker-pressure cooker.

Russian sanitary rules for catering (SanPiN 2.3.2.1324-03) allow kholodets, studen and aspic no more than 12 hours at 2-6 °C. Russia's consumer watchdog advises making only as much at home as you will eat in 1-2 days, and the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) gives cooked dishes up to 2 days.

• Keep kholodets in the fridge, covered with a lid or film, and eat it within 1-2 days.
• Do not leave it on the table for more than 2 hours: it spoils faster in the warm than it looks, even while it stays set.
• Do not freeze it: after thawing, the jelly weeps and turns loose.
• Pregnant women, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system should eat kholodets within the first day: listeria can grow in jellied meat dishes, even in the fridge.
• Kindergartens and schools in Russia do not serve kholodets under sanitary rules.

Under Russian standard GOST 32784-2014, 100 g of factory-made beef kholodets has no more than 216 kcal and pork kholodets no more than 261 kcal. Homemade kholodets is usually lighter, 150-250 kcal per 100 g depending on the meat. For comparison, the USDA lists pork headcheese at 157 kcal. To make it lighter, lift off the set fat and use more chicken and beef than pork.

• Kholodets from pork trotters and chicken without gelatine.
• Jellied meat in a multicooker-pressure cooker.
• Tongue in aspic with gelatine.
• Pork in aspic with gelatine.

Times for individual meats: how long to boil pork, how long to boil chicken, how long to boil turkey and how long to boil beef tongue.