Its taste is very mild with a hint of meat flavor.

Homemade gelatin hasn't been bleached, preserved, or sugared. By the time you've boiled the feet 4 to 7 hours to make gelatin, I'm sure no germs can survive.)Īfter trying my first homemade gelatin, I really noticed the contrast between it and the acid bite and heavy sweetness of the presweetened, preflavored commercial gelatin powder. Our local custom butcher is compelled by law, in the name of 'health,' to put all cow's feet from the knee down into a barrel and pour creosote over them, so he can't sell them to me to make gelatin or even give the bones to a neighbor lady's dog for gnawing. We butcher here at home fairly often, and friends who butcher often let me have the feet. I make homemade gelatin as often as I can get the 'Calf's foot jelly' is a traditional old-time dish, but you can actually make homemade gelatin from cow's heels (the same as feet, only grown up) beef soup bones sheep or goat legs pig's feet or backbone chicken necks, heads, backs, feet or any other bony pieces you've got. If you don't have '4 calf's feet' for a recipe, substitute 2 lb. Feet are the boniest, ligamentiest part of the animal and not good for anything else in the kitchen. Commercial gelatin is made from skins, bones, and sinews. Gelatin is made from bones and ligaments. To firm it, just chill again and it will set up again. Homemade gelatin is strained, clarified meat stock flavored any way you like. Now we call pectin-jellied preserves 'jelly' and animal jellies 'gelatin.' To Great-Grandmother they were both 'jelly' 'Stock' means soup broth.

By 'jelly,' the old-time recipe writers meant gelatin.

Beef gelatin powder recipes