Hearty jellied meat in Rus' was considered food for servants. It was prepared from the leftover meat from the table of the rich, boiling it to a thick consistency. Since the 16th century, the fashion for French dishes came to Russia, and it was then that jelly became a real festive dish. Alas, the exquisite dish could not be stored in the summer. Modern housewives have a great advantage in this regard, but not everyone knows how long homemade jellied meat can be stored in the refrigerator. The shelf life of this product varies even among manufacturers. What this is connected with and how to prolong the freshness of your favorite meat delicacy is described in the article.
In a refrigerator
It is necessary to keep jellied meat in a glass, enamel or ceramic container with a closed lid as far as possible from foods with a strong odor at a temperature not exceeding 10 degrees Celsius. According to SES standards, snacks prepared at home will be stored in the refrigerator:
- without additional products in the composition - 72 hours;
- with the addition of vegetables or herbs - 36 hours.
The expiration date of factory-made goods in a vacuum is indicated on the packaging. According to GOST, it should not exceed 10 days at a temperature of 0 to 6 degrees.
Jellied meat, prepared in large quantities, in winter, like cottage cheese, can be placed on the balcony. It is advisable that the outside temperature be around -5 degrees.
From meat
It is generally accepted that jellied meat should be prepared from the knuckle, pork legs and head. Such ingredients create a natural protective layer of frozen fat and eliminate the need to add gelatin to the composition. It is not recommended to remove this layer until consumption. Despite this, a snack made from beef or beef tongue is no less popular than from pork.
If all the rules are followed, the meat treat can remain in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
However, it is better not to wait until the last day and eat the dish as soon as possible. Products in vacuum packaging must be consumed within the period specified by the manufacturer.
From fish
The main raw material for jellied fish is frozen fish. Fish aspic is more difficult to prepare than others, but the end result is an excellent holiday treat: pike perch is especially tasty.
The shelf life of the jelly is only 24 hours at a temperature of 0 to 8 degrees, so you should not make large reserves and prepare the snack for future use.
From poultry
Chicken jelly has the most delicate taste and is quite suitable as a dietary dish. Chicken or turkey appetizers are prepared faster than others and without adding gelatin.
The storage time for such a dish is identical to the time established for meat treats.
Depending on the ingredients
Most housewives like to add various vegetables to jellied meat during the cooking process. This helps to diversify the taste and appearance of the treat.
Unfortunately, this method is not the most successful for preparing large quantities of food. Sanpin states that carrots, greens or boiled eggs reduce the shelf life by 2 times. Adding fresh garlic or onions is also not recommended, since the strong aroma of the additive will prevent you from smelling the spoiled snack.
Grated horseradish helps to increase the shelf life by 2-3 days if it is evenly spread over the treat and the container is tightly closed with a lid.
Increasing shelf life using different methods
To preserve jellied meat for as long as possible, it is prepared from fresh meat. Use clean dishes and rubber gloves. Store the product in sealed containers.
For longer storage of jellied meat, various preservatives are added:
- Horseradish is chopped on a fine grater and poured onto the surface of the dish. Cover the top with foil and put on a lid to prevent air from entering. Shelf life: 7 days.
- If meat or chicken does not gel well, add gelatin to the dish. It stimulates hardening and extends the shelf life of the finished dish by another 2 days.
- The shelf life increases to 7 days if you add more salt.
To increase shelf life, you can also use chemical preservatives, such as Unicons. They extend the shelf life of jellied meat to 2 weeks. But this method is not common among housewives.
Reference. Fresh garlic and onions do not extend the shelf life of the product. If the jellied meat begins to deteriorate, they simply interrupt its smell.
In the freezer
If the treat is being prepared for future use, it should be kept in the freezer.
When frozen, the snack remains fresh for up to 3 months.
It will be a big plus if the refrigerator has a blast freezing function, then the meat will freeze evenly and will not crystallize. They often write on forums that this method can preserve the product for up to 5–6 months. However, this statement is controversial, so you should not take risks and delay storage until the last day.
In order to return the original appearance and taste of the product after the procedure, you need to remove it from the freezer, bring it to a boil and cool it. Once frozen, the meat dish can also be used as a base for soup.
Repeated freezing is unacceptable.
Is it possible to freeze a meat dish and how to do it correctly
If you have prepared a lot of food, you can’t eat it, or you need to stock up for a certain date, then it is recommended to place the dish in the freezer.
The shelf life of the product depends on the type of freezing. You must choose “fast”: in this case, the jelly is frozen evenly, without crystallization with ice, and stored for up to 6 months.
Read more ► How to store champagne: shelf life of open and unopened sparkling wine
The storage container must have a lid. It is recommended to additionally wrap the container with 2-3 layers of cling film. This will help reduce the weathering of the liquid and the absorption of foreign odors.
Influence of ingredients on preservation
For the holiday, housewives decorate jellied meat by adding boiled carrots, fresh herbs, peas, and halves of chicken or quail eggs. This approach will make the dish more elegant, but will significantly reduce its shelf life. When using products that have not been subjected to heat treatment, the jelly will begin to deteriorate within 1-2 days.
- Adding garlic, onions and spices will not protect meat jelly from spoilage.
- Even the aromatic horseradish root, rich in phytoncides, is not able to extend the shelf life of your favorite jellied meat.
The listed ingredients are added only to enhance the taste, but do not affect the preservation. Table salt, which is a natural preservative, can extend the shelf life. With a low salt content, the jellied meat will begin to deteriorate faster. The main thing is not to oversalt the dish.
Do you know that…
Many people do not like the fat that accumulates on the surface of the frozen mass, so they try to remove it as soon as possible. But it protects the jelly from contact with air, which prolongs the shelf life of the jelly.
To learn how to properly prepare jellied meat, watch this video:
Signs of a spoiled product
At low temperatures, jellied meat is stored for 5-7 days. The following signs will indicate that the dish has gone bad:
- When stored in the refrigerator, the product began to release water, which did not solidify.
- A grayish tint or crust has appeared on the surface of the dish.
- The jelly has become cloudy.
- At room temperature, the dish, which had been standing for several minutes, began to emit an unpleasant smell of spoiled meat.
If stored properly, these signs may appear on day 6-7. In order not to forget how long the product is stored in the refrigerator, the packaging is marked with the date of manufacture. A spoiled product should not be “reanimated”; it is immediately thrown away.
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Canning as a method of long-term storage of jellied meat
Home cooks don't just love to cook it during the holidays. They also make homemade preparations that allow you to enjoy the dish all year round. To preserve jellied meat, you can use standard traditional recipes.
Rice. 9 – Canned jellied meat
- You will need pieces of meat, rich broth, bay leaves, and peppercorns.
- You can cook them much less than for standard jellied meat. Bring the meat until half cooked.
- After this, jars of meat and meat broth are sent for sterilization. It must last at least two hours.
- Then the jars are rolled up and sent to any cool place.
Such canned meat in jelly can be stored for at least a year. You can take them out and put them on the table at any time. But, of course, such canned food is somewhat different from classic jellied meat.
Natural preservative
Gelatin cannot be used to create such preparations. The reason is that during sterilization, cans of meat are subjected to boiling for a long time. The gelling properties of gelatin are thereby destroyed, making it useless as a preservative. How do you ensure the safety of the dish in this situation?
In this case, individual parts of the meat carcass act as a natural preservative. You need to choose those that have a high collagen content. When cooked, it is released and acts as a gelling agent for canned food. Such parts can be, for example, pork and beef legs, bones, skin with a layer of fat, etc. This broth turns out to be very strong and rich.
Eat it or throw it away
Errors in storage, low-quality ingredients and violations of cooking technology can lead to spoilage of the product ahead of schedule. You can tell if jellied meat is spoiled by its color, smell, and mold:
- Unpleasant smell.
- Cloudy shade.
- Mold.
This kind of jellied meat should not be eaten; it should be thrown away. If the product has lost its presentation, but remains fresh and of high quality, it can be digested and poured into clean containers. The process of digestion does not extend the shelf life.
Bottom line
Jellied meat, like all meat dishes, is a perishable product. It can only be stored if the temperature is kept fairly low. But you shouldn’t keep it in the refrigerator for more than five, maximum seven days.
The possibilities for increasing the shelf life of jellied meat are very limited. After a week, the natural process of protein oxidation begins in the meat, and eating the dish becomes unsafe.
Due to the special structure of jellied meat, the possibilities of its preservation are limited. Basically, this means removing from those portions that will be stored longer all products except meat, and maintaining the highest possible purity.
It is better to prepare as many servings of jellied meat as there are expected eaters, and a little more in reserve, than to try to preserve a perishable product, risking your health.
Sources
- https://domcvetyhobbi.ru/eda/skolko-mozhno-hranit-holodec.html
- https://trg-market.ru/pishcha/skolko-hranitsya-holodec-v-holodilnike.html
- https://GrushaCafe.ru/produkty/mozhno-li-zamorozit-holodec.html
- https://profhranenie.ru/srok-hraneniya-domashnego-holodtsa
- https://ProHranenie.ru/produkty/gotovye-blyuda-i-polufabrikaty/holodets.html
- https://SrokiGodnosti.ru/meet/holodets
- https://dostavka-tlt.ru/pishchevye-produkty/cherez-skolko-zastyvaet-holodec-bez-zhelatina.html
- https://Otbelim.com/hranenie/drugaya-produktsiya/skolko-hranitsa-holodec-v-holodilnike.html
- https://rem.ninja/kuhnya/hranenie/domashnego-holodtsa-v-holodilnoy-kamere.html
- https://expluataciya-holodilnika.ru/produkty/holodecz/skolko-hranitsja-domashnij-holodec-v-holodilnike/
- https://sdelai-lestnicu.ru/obustrojstvo/skolko-hranitsa-holodec-v-holodilnike-sroki-i-optimalnye-uslovia
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Cooking secrets
You can often see jellied meat on the holiday table. Preparing this dish is quite a long task, but absolutely not difficult. There are several secrets on how to cook jellied meat
so that it turns out very tasty:
- Beef and pork legs
will help the jellied meat set faster without adding gelatin. - To make the dish more tasty, you need to add different types of meat.
- To add a golden hue, add the onion
without peeling it, removing only the roots. - The longer you cook the jellied meat, the richer the taste becomes.
- The meat must be disassembled by hand, carefully separating the fibers.
- The most delicious jellied meat is made from chicken meat
with the addition of pork legs. - In addition to Ukrainian jellied meat, the dish prepared according to the original Georgian recipe is very tasty.
Proper defrosting
To prepare frozen jellied meat, it is recommended to boil it for a while, pour it into a bowl again, and after cooling, place it in the refrigerator.
- The container with jellied meat is placed in the microwave, and after the broth becomes liquid, it and its contents are poured into an enamel bowl and boiled for about 5 minutes. This must be done to allow excess water to evaporate, otherwise the dish will become liquid and uneven.
- The still hot broth is seasoned with salt and spices (garlic should be added after it is removed from the heat).
- The liquid dish is poured into containers and placed in a cold place, after which it will again acquire an elastic consistency and dense structure.
