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Eggs in Jelly
Put one ounce of Cooper isinglass, in just enough water to cover it, over the fire, until it is all well dissolved; then sweeten one quart cream or milk, flavor with vanilla. Make a small hole in eight or nine eggs, empty the egg, and rinse them thoroughly, then strain the isinglass on the cream or milk, mix well, and fill the egg shells with this blanc mange, place the eggs in a pan of meal or bran to keep them steady until moulded. Soak the gelatine in cold water, as it will dissolve sooner.
A Victorian trompe-l'oeil dessert: sweetened, vanilla-scented gelatine cream set inside blown eggshells, then peeled and served as "eggs." The recipe is short because it assumes you already know how blanc mange behaves; the details below are the ones that decide whether it works.
- Isinglass and "Cooper's"Isinglass is gelatine made from fish swim bladders, and Cooper's was a commercially sold gelatine of the period. Ordinary powdered or leaf gelatine replaces it: one ounce is about four 1/4-oz envelopes, which should set a quart firmly enough to unmould, though isinglass and modern gelatine are not equivalent weight for weight.
- The contradictory last lineThe final sentence undercuts the first: bloom the gelatine in cold water for five to ten minutes, then melt it gently in just enough water to cover. Do not let it boil, which weakens the set and gives a glue-like taste.
- Emptying the shellsChip a hole the size of a dime at the wide end with the point of a knife, break the inner membrane, and shake the egg out. A larger hole is easier to fill but leaves a visible crater in the finished "egg."
- Shell hygieneRaw shells carry bacteria on both surfaces, and nothing in this dessert is cooked afterward. Rinse the shells, then hold them in boiling water for a minute and drain them dry before filling.
- "A pan of meal or bran"Cornmeal or bran simply props the shells upright, hole up, while the jelly sets. Uncooked rice, coarse salt, or an inverted egg carton does the same job.
- Filling and settingFill through a small funnel or the corner of a piping bag while the mixture is cool but still fluid; if it has begun to thicken it will trap air pockets. Refrigerate four to six hours, or overnight, before peeling.
- ServingPeel like a hard-boiled egg under cool running water. Eight or nine shells give eight or nine small servings; they are often arranged on shredded candied peel or coloured coconut to suggest a nest.
- FlavourA quart of cream plus a quarter cup of sugar is a starting point; the vanilla should be assertive, since cold gelatine mutes flavour noticeably.
Blanc mange -- literally "white food" in French -- began as a medieval dish characteristically made of pounded almonds with shredded capon or fish and rice, and by the nineteenth century meant any pale, moulded milk jelly. Isinglass, the setting agent here, was prepared from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish and was the standard clarifying and jellying material of the period; commercially packaged sheet gelatines, sold under brand names like Cooper's, gradually displaced it as they became reliable and cheap. Setting the blanc mange inside blown eggshells belongs to a Victorian and Edwardian taste for dishes that pretended to be something else. The instruction to steady the shells in a pan of meal or bran is a reminder of how much of a period kitchen ran on improvisation with what was already in the pantry.