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I've found the terms "aspic" and of course "drippings" and "gravy", but I don't think any of those quite describe what I'm asking about — for example, we just baked some meatballs and between each one there was a mix of both liquid fat and a grey-ish/pink-ish sludge. With chicken meat it tends to be whiter. It has a texture somewhere between cooked liver and jello.

Is there a proper name for this "sludge"? Are there any particularly traditional uses for it?

UPDATE: another question calls this same thing "scum", and the answers deal with what it is: What's that scum at the sides of my home-made burger when I cook it?

I'm wondering here what it's called, i.e. if there's a more generous term for it than "sludge" or "scum".

natevw
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2 Answers2

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The sludge you speak of is actually proteins called myosin (denatures at 120f) and actin (denatures at 150f) going through the stages of denaturing, coagulation and ultimately gelantization. Protein coagulates when it is denatured, that is destroyed. Gelatization is a follow on the process of breakdown in connective tissue.

Susie Stevens
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Scum is the correct answer here, even though it sounds strange to modern ears. Originally, it is a cooking term, which denotes the stuff which floats on something you cook (protein in stock, the foamy stuff in jam) and can be gathered and removed with a skimming spoon if one wants to.

The derogatory use is more common in general conversation, and it is related, it probably arose as a metaphor. But in cooking jargon, it clearly has this meaning. It does have a little bit of a negative association, in the sense that you want to remove that scum, but I think there is no purely neutral word for it, since people who care about this kind of detail usually prefer it gone.

rumtscho
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