In Hungary pork jelly or kocsonya is known as a main dish, usually cooked during the carnival season. As a Hungarian journalist said, kocsonya is “the etheral essence of pork”. It’s not far from the truth since kocsonya is a rich, solid broth containing soft pork meat. We use skinned, gristly and bony parts that are simmered for several hours in order to have enough dissolved collagen in the broth, which turns the broth into jelly at low temperature.

Pork jelly can be made from pork feet, shank, ear, tail, pork skin, but it can also contain smoked meat, vegetables like carrot and parsley root, or hard boiled eggs. The bigger stores in Hungary provide so called pork jelly packs that include all the necessary pork parts that are suitable for kocsonya or you can even ask your bucther to prepare a similar pack.

We use only a few spices to season pork jelly: black pepper and allspice corns, salt and garlic. Many, many, many garlic cloves. Besides the ingredients the only thing you need to make the perfect kocsonya is patience. It takes 3-4 hours to simmer the meat, then broth needs several hours to set. But believe me, it’s worth. We eat with soft white bread, sprinkling ground paprika or squeezing lemon juice over its top.