Aspic that always turns out clear: 5 effective tips

Cooking aspic raises a lot of questions for housewives: how to make a clear broth, what to do to make it solidify, how long to cook the meat. But everything is much easier than it seems. You need to know a few simple tricks.

Vitalina, a food blogger with the nickname v.vanilinka, shared her tips on how to make a rich and transparent aspic on Instagram.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of chicken legs, wings, neck, head
• 1.5-2 kg of chicken meat parts
• 2-4 carrots
• 2-4 onions (for color with peel)
• 1/3 of parsley root - optional
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 6-10 black peppercorns
• 1-2 allspice peas
• salt
• 4-7 cloves of garlic
• other spices to taste

Method of preparation:

1. Rinse all parts of the chicken well. If you have time, you can soak it in cold, salt water for several hours. Drain this water.

2. If the chicken is from the store, cover the meat and bones with water, bring to a boil, boil for 3 minutes, then drain.

3. Put the bones on the bottom of a large saucepan, meat parts on top and cover with cold water 2-3 fingers above the level of the meat. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove the foam and curdled protein, add 1.5 tsp of salt, reduce the heat to low and cook for 4-6 hours. Add vegetables, spices, and salt 1-2 hours before switching off.

4. Add garlic 5 minutes before switching off. Taste the aspic for salt; when hot, it should be saltier than usual.

5. Remove the meat and bones from the broth. Disassemble the meat by hand into fibers, removing all bones and cartilage. Strain the broth through a sieve through 2-3 layers of cheesecloth.

6. Put the meat into molds. Garnish with carrots, boiled eggs, or herbs, if desired. Pour in the broth and leave to cool on the table. When it cools down, put it in the refrigerator.

7. The aspic will take 5-6 hours to harden.

A few cooking secrets:

1. If the broth is cloudy, it can be cleaned with the white of a chicken egg: whip the white into a foam, add to the boiling broth (without meat). When it boils a little, strain the broth.

2. The fat on the surface can be removed with paper napkins. Just soak the fat with a napkin and then throw it away.

3. If the aspic is not frozen, reheat it and add gelatin soaked in water.

4. If you don't have chicken bones, you can use gelatin: for 2 liters of broth, you need 3 tsp of gelatin + 15 tsp of water, pour and leave for 20 minutes. Then add a little hot broth, stir until all the granules are dissolved, pour into a saucepan and warm a little.

5. Store the aspic in the refrigerator for no more than 5 days. If you need it longer, freeze the ready-made aspic, and when you need it, defrost it, warm it up and let it freeze again.