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Figs in Sherry Jelly
1 tablespoon granulated gela- 1/2 cup best table Sherry wine. tine. 1/4 cup cold water. ¾ cup boiling water.
Juice of 1 small lemon. 1/2 dozen washed figs.
Whipped Cream. 1/2 cup sugar.
PROCESS: Soak gelatine in cold water, then dissolve it in boiling water; add sugar and stir occasionally until mixture begins to thicken, then add wine and lemon juice. Chill a pint mold in ice water (a fancy mold is attractive for this purpose). Separate the figs, slice them thinly and dip some of them in the jelly and use them for decorating the mold; then fill the mold with alternate layers of sliced figs and the mixture, allowing the jelly to "set" each time before adding the slices of figs. Chill thoroughly. Unmold jelly on serving dish and surround with whipped cream sweetened and flavored as desired. Use pastry bag and rose tube for this purpose.
A layered wine jelly built in a chilled mold, from the era when a turned-out gelatine was the centerpiece of a summer dessert. Nothing here is difficult, but the assembly rewards patience.
- The hinge: build it in stagesEach layer must be nearly set before the next slices and liquid go in, or the figs float and the layers muddle. Give each addition 15-20 minutes in the refrigerator and keep the remaining jelly at room temperature so it stays pourable.
- Gelatine measureOne tablespoon of granulated gelatine is roughly 9-10 g, a little more than one of the 1/4-oz envelopes sold today. The recipe's liquid comes to about a cup and a half (1/4 cup cold water, 3/4 cup boiling water, 1/2 cup sherry, plus the lemon juice), which this much gelatine will set firm enough to unmold.
- Add the wine off the heatThe sherry and lemon juice go in only after the gelatine is fully dissolved and the mixture has begun to thicken. Alcohol added to hot liquid loses much of its aroma, and the half cup of sherry is the whole point of the dish.
- Best table SherryThis means a drinkable amontillado or oloroso, not cooking sherry, which is salted. A medium-dry sherry balances the half cup of sugar; a cream sherry will make it cloying.
- FigsFresh figs come to market in mid- to late summer, and 'washed' may point to fresh fruit, though dried figs were commonly washed before use as well. If you use dried figs, plump them in warm water or a little of the sherry first and slice them thin, or they will be leathery against the jelly.
- Chilling the moldIce water was used to bring a metal mold down quickly; a few minutes in the freezer does the same. To unmold, dip the mold briefly in warm water and invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be nudged into position.
- YieldA pint mold serves about four as a light dessert. The whipped cream is piped around the base, as the recipe says to surround the unmolded jelly with it, rather than spread over the top.
Molded wine jellies ran through American and British cookery from the nineteenth century into the 1930s, and their spread owes much to reliable packaged gelatine, which spared cooks the long boiling of calves' feet or the use of isinglass. Sherry was among the common flavorings for such jellies, alongside madeira, port and plain lemon, being a household fortified wine whose nutty dryness stood up to the sugar needed to make a jelly palatable. 52 Sunday Dinners places this among the summer menus, when figs came to market in the warmer growing regions and a cold, clear dessert suited the season better than pastry. The instruction to finish with a pastry bag and rose tube is a mark of the period's ambition for the home table.