Gelatin

Trotters make their own. Boil, strain, chill, and the terrine sets itself.

Two leaves per litre. Any more and the wobble turns into a rubber puck.

Knuckle bones are the reason classical stock sets solid in the fridge.

Clarified and set, it becomes a consommé you eat with a fork.

Acid weakens the set, so lean sweet and add a leaf more than the chart says.

The set carries aroma slowly; vanilla releases over the whole spoonful.

Alcohol resists setting. Reduce it first or the jelly never firms up.

Suspended in the jelly, it stays green and the ham stays put.

Aspic needs one loud aromatic; anything subtler is lost inside the set.

Clarify the water, set it clear. The colour goes, the flavour does not.

A thin sheet over the top holds the eggs still and stops them oxidising.

Bitter red set into cubes. The texture makes the bitterness arrive slower.

The enzyme digests it and the jelly never sets. Use it deliberately or boil the fruit.

Raw, it destroys the set completely. Cook the fruit first or the mousse is soup.

Set in its own liquor and served back in the shell. Cold, saline, unnerving.