Meat Jelly – Sült

Sült is yet another inventive Estonian cuisine. It's made by boiling animal bones and then letting the mixture cool until natural gelatin forms and congeals the broth. Aromatics, as well as meat chunks and vegetable slices, are added to the soup. The mixture is then allowed to cool, at which point it begins to form a jelly. Meat jelly (also known as aspic) is a Slavic delicacy that can be found in the cuisines of many countries. It's traditionally offered at Christmas or Easter in Estonia. Sült is best served with a dollop of horseradish and a dollop of sour cream.

Ingredients

• 3 medium to large pieces of cut up ox feet or hooves (or equivalent amount of other meat discussed above), 1-1/5 lbs of moderately fatty (or not fatty) beef chunks, 4 L of cold water/or however much your slow cooker takes, 4-5 cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf, 2 TBSP salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper

Directions

• Leave the meat to soak in a large pot overnight. In the morning, take it out, wash everything. Clean the pig’s hooves well so that no hair remains. Peel the yellow skin off the chicken legs.
• In a large pot, add the pigs legs and chicken drum sticks. Add enough water to cover all of the meat. Set over high heat, cover, and bring to a boil.
• When the water has come to a boil, drain the water and wash the meat well. Then pour clean water (5-6 liters) over the meat and put on the heat. Don’t add too much water or it won’t become “gelatiney” enough.
• When the water has boiled, add 1 tablespoon of salt and reduce the heat to a light rolling simmer, not boiling, for 4 hours.
• Then, add the carrot and onion and cook for another hour. Taste and add salt if necessary. It should look like a nice chicken broth. Now, it’s important that you do not discard the broth and do not add more water to the pot! Remove the drumsticks and carrots from the broth and set aside to cool.
• Discard the pigs legs, onion, and bay leaves. Use a fine mesh sieve with 3 bounty paper towels over it and filter the broth. This will leave you with a clean broth. Peel and press 4 garlic cloves into the broth and check to see if more salt is needed.
• Remove the meat from the broth and, once it has cooled, take the meat off the bones. Properly cooked, the pork and beef should easily fall off the bone. Remove the skin from the meat. Cut the meat into pieces and arrange it on plates.
• Cut the boiled carrots into rings 0.5 cm thick.
• Put a layer of pork into a deep dish or other receptacle with high sides, then spread around the carrot rings. Pour in enough of the hot strained broth to cover the meat and a little extra over the top. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight, or until firm.