Lemon Jelly
Soak one box Cox's gelatine in one pint of cold water; make with two good sized lemons a quart of rich lemonade, let it come to a boil, stir in the gelatine and strain it in a mould previously wet with cold water.
A two-ingredient jelly that depends entirely on getting the gelatine ratio right, since the original measures it by a brand of box that no longer exists.
- One box of Cox'sJ. & G. Cox of Edinburgh sold their gelatine in boxes usually reckoned at about 1 oz, though sizes varied; on that basis, roughly four modern quarter-ounce envelopes, or about 28 g of powdered gelatine. If you have leaf gelatine, weigh rather than count, as sheet sizes vary.
- The liquid total is highA pint of soaking water plus a quart of lemonade gives three pints of liquid. If the box was about 1 oz, that is a soft set and may be awkward to unmould cleanly. For a firmer jelly, soak the gelatine in half a pint and make the lemonade with the remaining pint and a half, or increase the gelatine.
- Do not boil the gelatineThe lemonade comes to a boil before the gelatine goes in, and that order matters. Gelatine held at a rolling boil, especially in an acid liquid, loses setting strength; stir it into the hot syrup off the heat until fully dissolved.
- "Rich lemonade"The sugar is left to the cook. For a quart, start with about 1 cup of sugar and the juice of two lemons (roughly 1/3 cup) and taste while hot — jelly reads noticeably less sweet and less sour cold than it does warm.
- Strain, and mean itStraining through a fine sieve or a scalded cloth removes pulp, pips and any undissolved gelatine, and is what gives the finished jelly its clarity. Period recipes commonly direct skimming any scum before straining.
- Wetting the mouldRinsing the mould with cold water and leaving it wet is a release trick, not a superstition — the film of water keeps the jelly from gripping the metal. Do not oil it; oil clouds the surface.
- Setting timeFour to six hours in the refrigerator for a quart-and-a-half mould, longer if it is deep. To turn out, dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into place.
- YieldAbout six to eight servings as a supper sweet.
Cox's gelatine came from J. & G. Cox of Gorgie Mills, Edinburgh, and by the late nineteenth century the brand name was so familiar in Britain and America that cookbooks used "one box of Cox's" as a unit of measure, much as later writers wrote "one envelope of Knox's." Packaged gelatine of this kind was a genuine convenience: before it, a clear lemon jelly meant boiling down calves' feet for hours, clarifying the stock with egg white, and hoping. That this recipe sits under Supper rather than Dessert reflects the period's lighter evening meal, where a moulded jelly, some cold meat and bread and butter constituted the whole table — jelly was considered digestible and suitable for invalids as well as guests, which is much of why it turns up so often in household books of the era.