Swedish Jellied Veal (Kalvsylta)

This past week, with 3 other food bloggers, I participated in a Jell-O dare. Or, as I prefer to call this challenge: The Knoxapocalypse. The rules were that each of us would select a gelatin-centric recipe, the recipes would be randomly assigned, and then we’d have to make our assigned dish. No substitutions were allowed unless allergy-related (the links to the other contenders are at the bottom of this post).

I got a real winner.

Join me for some Jellied Veal, won’t you?

When I received my assignment my first response was “Lexi is a sadistic bitch.”

That was quickly followed by, “man, veal is so goddamned expensive!” Seriously. I spent almost $20 on the veal.

Then I decided to do a little research and see exactly what I was up against. Veal brawn or Kalvsylta is a dish from Sweden that is traditionally served on Christmas Eve as part of the Julbord (holiday Smorgasborg).  The other usual suspects include a holiday ham, assorted pickled herring, beets, eggs, caviar, gravlax, Swedish meatballs, and this jellied veal thingie. Oh! And of course some Holiday Glögg. One mustn’t forget the Glögg.

Jellied Veal, or brawn, is also commonly referred to as headcheese. This excited me greatly because I always wanted to know what headcheese was and I have now made one in my very own home!

Anyway, I bought my veal (I used osso bucco shanks), allspice, and Knox unflavored gelatin and had a hot Saturday night with my Jell-O molds.

I should note that I cut this recipe in half. What in the hell would I do with 2 pounds of Jellied Veal, right? Also, I don’t have white peppercorns in my spice rack nor was I able to find any at the grocery store. Black peppercorns had to suffice.

This is a terribly easy recipe. If you can make chicken broth, you can make Jellied Veal!

The cooking methods used are just boiling and chopping. I just boiled the meat from 6pm to 7:50. Separated the bone and gristle/fat from the meat. Put the bone/gristle/fat back into the water and let that boil further while I chopped the meat.

Let me say how good this meat was. I am not lying when I say that the meat and the broth were amazing. Amazingly simple and amazingly good.

At 8:15 I strained the bone/gristle/fat and seasonings out of the pot and then added the minced meat back into the stock with 1 packet of Knox unflavored gelatin. I seasoned it to taste and then it went into the mold.

In the Jellied Veal photos I found on the interwebs, the brawn was in loaf-form. And although I do have a loaf pan, I halved the recipe and didn’t have enough to fill the loaf pan. So I went with a smaller mold. I picked a ring mold because I’m fancy like that.

A Julbord menu

And into the fridge the jellied veal went to congeal overnight.

That sounded almost poetic.

Cleve was dreading it, but on Sunday afternoon I served my Jellied Veal. I paired it with some items that I had in my house that I found on a Julborg menu: horseradish, mustard, beets, cornichons, crackers, and lingonberry jam (that I just got from the IKEA).

It was a bitch to get out of the mold–the Kalvsylta wanted to stay in its little copper house–but finally it emerged in all it’s jiggly, glossy glory…

I think I should get bonus points for presentation

There it is. My Kalvsylta.

If I had used a meat grinder the consistency would be finer and much more like a luncheon meat or a sausage. A liverwurst, perhaps. But as is it was–well, it was minced meat in Jell-O. But it wasn’t like just big hunks of meat suspended in clear goo. The thought of that is quite unnerving. As is, it was minced meat that was just kinda glossy. 

I swear on Elvis’ grave that I’m not lying when I tell you this was good. This isn’t completely surprising since the broth and meat pre-gelatin were tasty. Cleve agreed that the Kalvsylta tasted good, but he couldn’t get past the consistency. I’m proud that he gave it a try.

However, I like knuckle food and I do enjoy pate and foie gras, so I didn’t mind this at all. Cleve will vouch for me: I made a yummy sound while eating the Kalvsylta.

So that settles it. I eat weird shit. And I like it.

I should also note that Brian was quite intrigued by the Jellied Veal and was all up in my business trying to nab some. It does make a lot of sense considering that result was rather cat-food like.

Am I hankering to make this again? No. But it could’ve been much worse. I could’ve been assigned a dish with canned tuna!

IKEA foodstuffs

An aside: Cleve and I had a very Swedish weekend. We watched The Girl Who Played With Fire, went to IKEA in a futile attempt to get a dinette set, ate Swedish Meatballs, drank Lingonberry soda, and then I made this thing.

We have decided that if Rick Santorum becomes president we are going to go to Sweden and become illegal immigrants. We’d just pepper our names with some umlauts or something.

If I survived the Kalvsylta I think that I’d have no problems weathering the winters or whatever else Sweden would throw at me. Plus it seems so clean and pretty. And I do like that mid-century modern Swedish aesthetic.

If you were shocked/appalled/amazed/enthralled/and/or offended by this gelatin mold, I highly suggest you see what the other victims–um, participants–had to suffer through.

So what did you think of my Jellied Veal? Anyone want to take bets that none of the other ladies enjoyed eating their dishes as much as I did?

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22 thoughts on “Swedish Jellied Veal (Kalvsylta)

  1. My (paternal) grandmother was born in Sweden (near Sundsval) and used to make this every Christmas Eve. I make it on occaision for our annual Julbord, but I don’t get many takers. Still, I make it because the aroma alone makes me remember.

  2. THANK YOU – my mother cooks this every year in London – we celebrate Swedish Christmas in honour of my Fathers Swedish ancestry. The recipe is as old as the hills, written on a scrap of paper, and she’s lost it. i will now send her this link and all will be well. Try this, btw, it’s delicious!

  3. I kinda thought this would be yummy. I’m sorry it was so expensive though! I get veal cheap here and didn’t think of it. And yes, your presentation gets lots of bonus points. Mine was a joke.

  4. Love this! I’m glad you liked it because now I want to try it. Sounds like you had a great Swedish weekend. We don’t have an IKEA despite lots of Swedes in this area. Thankfully, our grocery stores stock a LOT of Swedish items.

    I like your Santorum contingency plan. I’m really really worried about this whole “personhood” thing that’s up in the Kansas state legislature. I’m thinking Paul and I may have to go back to France (or England)…for good.

  5. Sorry. I’m all about the consistency too. Also, don’t eat veal. Will also consider fleeing if there is a Santorum victory:)

  6. i’m fairly sure that the consistency would turn me off as well but….KUDOS….a gelatin feast!! dad and i were just discussing where to go post possible santorum election…we will now add sweden to the list since you made it sound so nice.

  7. Wow! I am really excited for you and impressed that this turned out well. And your theming really went above and beyond. The plating! IKEA! A Swedish weekend! Maybe we should have all done a theme day. I should have put on a house coat and had a dry martini for dinner. 🙂

    Had a great time, and LOVE your post!

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