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Newport Orange Jelly
Three oranges, two lemons, one-half box gelatine, one pound granulated sugar; put in one-half pint of water the rind and juice of the oranges and boil until it becomes quite yellow; then grate the rind of the lemons, add the juice and mix with the orange water; put a cup of cold water in one-half box of gelatine, soak for one hour, then add one pint boiling water, with the sugar, and wet the moulds and strain the jelly into them. This quantity makes three pints jelly.
A straightforward wine-glass-and-mould jelly whose only real puzzles are the gelatine measure and the fact that the original never tells you to chill it.
- Half a box of gelatineBox sizes varied; a box of granulated gelatine of this period is usually reckoned at about 1 to 2 ounces, so half a box is somewhere between roughly 1/2 and 1 ounce — two to four modern 1/4-ounce (7 g) envelopes. Four envelopes in 3 pints gives a firm, sliceable mould-jelly; three, or fewer, a gentler set.
- SugarOne pound of granulated sugar is about 2 1/4 cups, which is very sweet by current taste. Two-thirds of that still sets and still tastes of citrus rather than syrup.
- "Boil until it becomes quite yellow"This is an oil extraction: the pared rind gives up its aromatic oil into the water and colours it. Use only the coloured zest, no white pith, or the jelly turns bitter, and watch the volume — a half pint at a hard boil reduces fast.
- Soaking the gelatineAn hour in cold water was needed for the coarse gelatine of the day. Modern powder blooms in 5 to 10 minutes; add the boiling water only after it has swelled, and stir until no grains remain on the spoon.
- StrainingGrated lemon rind and citrus pulp will cloud the finished jelly. Pour through a fine sieve lined with damp muslin and do not press the solids through.
- Wetting the mouldsRinsing the moulds in cold water leaves a film that helps the jelly turn out cleanly. To unmould, dip the base in hot water for a few seconds and invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into place.
- SettingThe original says nothing about chilling or time. Allow 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator for small moulds, overnight for a single large one.
- YieldThree pints serves eight to ten as a supper or dessert jelly, or fills about a dozen small individual moulds.
Clear citrus jellies like this one belong to the moment when gelatine stopped being a kitchen labour and became a purchase. Cooks of the mid-nineteenth century still boiled calves' feet or isinglass for hours to get a setting stock; by the 1890s packaged granulated gelatine sold in small boxes made a moulded jelly a matter of soaking, straining and waiting, which is exactly why so many community and household cookbooks of the period carry a page of them. The "Newport" in the name may be one of the resort-town labels American recipe collections attached to elegant dishes — Newport, Rhode Island being shorthand for summer society — but nothing here settles whether the name records an origin.