Another yummy gelatin thing

[Karon Adams]

Yup. I'm a broken record. yes, I LOVE this stuff. the uses are endless, the variations trans formative.

For competition cooks, I know CandySueQ and i talked about gelatin, as in clear, unflavored gelatin to spray on the meat and the greenery in the box before you turn it in to make it all pretty and shiny.

Well here's another thing. You guys know I use pig trotters to increase my yield of gelatin during the cook and catch more smoke flavor in the process. Well, this last cook, I went a little further in increasing my yield, After the drip pan came off, I put the trotters off the smoker AND the contents of the drip pan into the pressure cooker and ran that for 2 hours.

Now, that left me with some AMAZING gelatin. with the meaty flavor all there, the smoky flavor, too. it was rich and mouth filling and, really, if you wave any desire to have BBQ consumme rather than just plain old pork or beef, this is how you do it!

another side of it is spices. I don't make my sauce from pantry spices because I don't like so much the taste of raw spices. they just taste raw. Boiling or even toasting helps and I DO toast the whole spices before I grind them for my rub. but, that is just toasting. since the pressure cooker cooks at 250, we get caramalization inside the Pressure cooker. so, I added a couple of tablespoons of rub, salt and sugar included, into the broth before I cooked it.

what came out was AMAZING! OMG, it was good. exactly BBQ broth. MAN! and the bases for fantastic sauce. BUT, it is also highly flavored gelatin in itself!

When I first started using gelatin, I always added it to the pot when reheating BBQ. water is very, very dry and reheating BBQ with a bit of water for moisture really makes it worse, taking meaty flavor with it as it cooks off. but gelatin re hydrates the meat far better. so, i had been blooming a pinch of gel, heating the water to dissolve it, THEN adding the BBQ to reheat. made a huge difference.

the gelatin made from pressure cooking the trotters and adding the extra spice is a whole other level. a little extra spice and POW! really nice to revive the leftovers. sauce or no sauce, this gives you the flavor again. but, if you also use it, the spiced gelatin made with the dripping from your cook and spray it on, say your ribs just before turning them in, your slices of meat like your brisket or the sliced money meat, heck, even a spritz on the lettuce if you rest your meat on a lettuce leaf for ease of judges taki9ng their serving... anywhere you can add flavor to your cook is a good thing, no?

Anyway, this last cook, I finished with enough sauce for us on the day and 3 more quarts of lusciously flavored gelatin which will be the base of more sauce as well as being the reheat gelatin for leftovers. there was a little fat left with it, maybe 4-6 ounces. don't toss that. it is wonderful for using in making crusts for meat pies or specialty breads. or, even just using instead of butter on a toasted Hawaiian roll.

Anyway, if anyone gives it a try please let me know how it goes. I'd love to see the results, what the judges think of it.

[Karon Adams]

Oh, PS, Plain, clear unflavored gelatin? makes EXCELLENT Hair spray!

[CandySueQ]

Going to do that trotter thing! My regular grocery went to super saver chain (same ownership). They now sell pigs feet!

[Karon Adams]

You will LOVE it! Get them to cut the trotters, longways if you can. then, coat them with your rub right along with the meat. put the trotters on the grate and use a smaller grate (We use one from a long since retired toaster oven) to hold your BBQ roast. just place your pork butt, toaster oven grate and all, on top of the feet. that way, the drippings from the feet and the Butt all drip into the same drip pan.

[EdF]

Guess you just told us what to do with the three trotters we have left in the freezer! Thanks!

[Thunder77]

Will this work with pig tails as well? My store se to have a lot of pig tails.

[Karon Adams]

oh, yes. Tails would be great. anything with lots of connective tissue and skin. the connective tissue is best but skin is all gelatin, too. the skin, you will need to pressure cook. but, the skin is perfect for catching smoke.

[JCGrill]

Karon, have you ever tried souse, or sülze? If you look on the Internet they will tell you it's pickled head cheese made into a loaf, and maybe it is, but my grandma used to make something that I can only describe as 'pickled meat jello' which she called sultz. She used pig feet. She'd make it in a rectangular metal pan. The gelatin from the feet would set up, and bits of meat would be suspended in it. I could never get past the look of it to try it.

[Karon Adams]

yes, and that is almost exactly how head cheese was made. you took the pig's head and boiled the entire head. that makes this marvelous meaty gelatin and cook the beautiful meat on the head. there's is a lot of it but getting it off is a pita until it cooks. but, once cooked,.you take off the meat and put it in a loaf pan, cook the rest of the head a little longer, spice the liquid then pour it over the meat from the head and allow ti to gelatinize. then, slice the souse/head cheese

[JGrana]

Interesting discussion on adding gelatin to liquids that you re-heat leftover BBQ/meats in.
I also noticed that the heated water/broth seemed to have an opposite effect on the meat. Looks moist but as soon as it hits the plate and some evaporation occurs - whew - dry.
Approx. how much gelatin would you recommend per cup of water/broth?

[Karon Adams]

well, you can use the recommendations on the package for the amount of dry gelatin to water. it is very little when dealing with dried gelatin. I usually start with, maybe a quarter teaspoon or less. a few tablespoons of water to bloom it, then I add heat to it to dissolve the gelatin, and THEN add the meat.

[JGrana]

Thanks!

[Karon Adams]

and, of course, adjust to your own preferences

[Karon Adams]

If you open a canned meat product, Vienna Sausages, Spam, Danish Canned Ham, you'll find what your kidlets would refer too as, "That icky jelly stuff". that's what makes the meat edible when you open the can. it's the meat gelatin. it only looks icky to us because we now connect jelly to fruit and mot meat, these days. lets bring back aspic!!