The story of Regel, Yemenite calf-foot soup
Regel, Hebrew for foot, comes from the Yemenite kitchen. Feet were a cheap cut, mostly skin, tendon and cartilage, and slow cooking with hawaij turned them into the thickest, most warming soup of winter.
In Israel it is sold in Yemenite restaurants and at stalls near the markets, sometimes as cow-foot soup, and many families make it in winter alongside the usual beef soup.
What makes Regel, Yemenite calf-foot soup itself
Gelatin sets regel apart. A calf foot is mostly skin, tendon and cartilage, and long cooking moves its collagen into the broth in amounts no other cut can match. The broth sticks to your lips, coats the spoon and turns solid as it cools, while hawaij gives it a golden colour and the smell of cumin.
