Apple Jelly
Make a syrup of a pound of sugar, in sufficient water to dissolve it; when boiled enough, lay in it the peeled and cored halves of some large sour apples, let them simmer until tender, then lay them carefully in a dish, (or in small dishes) so that they will remain unbroken and in good shape; add another pound of sugar to the syrup, let it boil; skim it and when partly cool pour it over the apples; when they become cold, each piece of apple will be surrounded by a delicious jelly; eat with sweetened cream.
A two-stage sugar syrup does all the work here: the apples poach in a light syrup, then are set in a heavier one that gels from the fruit's own pectin. No gelatine, no commercial pectin.
- The hinge: barely simmerThe whole point is unbroken halves in clear jelly. Keep the syrup at a bare tremble and turn the fruit with a spoon rather than tongs; a rolling boil will collapse the halves into sauce in a few minutes.
- Sugar and waterA pound of sugar is about 2 1/4 cups, and a second pound goes in later, so 4 1/2 cups in all. "Sufficient water to dissolve it" is probably around a cup for the first pound, enough to give a syrup the halves can simmer in; more water only means longer boiling later.
- "Boiled enough"For the first syrup this means clear and slightly thickened, a few minutes at a boil. For the second, boil until it sheets thickly from a spoon; around 220F is the usual jelling point for sugar-and-pectin preserves, though the recipe itself gives no such test.
- Sour apples"Large sour apples" means a firm, acid cooking variety: Northern Spy or Rhode Island Greening; Bramley or Granny Smith (both later varieties) serve as modern stand-ins. Sweet dessert apples give a softer result and less acid, and acid helps the pectin set.
- Poaching timeTender takes 8 to 15 minutes depending on variety and thickness. Test with a skewer at the thickest part and pull them while they still offer slight resistance; they soften further as they sit in the hot syrup.
- SkimmingSkim the foam off the second boiling properly. It is trapped air and fruit scum, and left in it clouds the jelly, which defeats the visual effect the recipe is after.
- Pouring "partly cool"Let the syrup drop to about 150F before pouring. Boiling-hot syrup will cook the fruit further and shrink it away from the jelly; syrup left too long will begin to set in the pan.
- Yield and servingThe recipe names no quantity; four large apples, halved, would give eight portions in small dishes. Chill several hours until fully set. "Sweetened cream" is cream with a spoonful of sugar stirred in.
Apples set in their own jelly were a standard of the nineteenth-century supper table, where the meal was lighter than dinner and leaned on fruit, preserves, cold meat and bread. The dish depends on a fact cooks knew by practice long before pectin was isolated and named in the 1820s: sour apples, boiled with sugar, produce a syrup that gels on cooling, while sweeter, less acid ones tend to set less readily. Because it needs no gelatine, no isinglass and no calf's foot, it was cheaper and far less laborious than the moulded jellies of the same period, and it could be made in quantity from windfall cooking apples in autumn. The instruction to eat it with sweetened cream rather than custard is often taken as a sign that it belonged to the homely supper table rather than a formal dessert course.