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Calf's-Foot Jelly
Cut across the first joint, and through the hoof, place in a large sauce-pan, cover with cold water, and bring quickly to the boiling point; when water boils, remove them, and wash thoroughly in cold water. When perfectly clean put into a porcelain-lined saucepan, add cold water in the proportion of three pints to two calf's feet, put sauce-pan over fire, and when water boils, set aside to a cooler place, where it will simmer very slowly for five hours; strain the liquor through a fine sieve, or a coarse towel, let it stand over night to set, remove the fat that has risen to the top, dip a towel in boiling water, and wash the surface, which will be quite firm. Now place in a porcelain-lined sauce-pan, and melt, add juice of two lemons, rinds of three cut into strips, one-fourth pound of cut loafsugar, ten cloves, and one inch of cinnamon stick. Put the whites of three eggs, together with the shells (which must first be blanched in boiling water), into a bowl, beat them slightly, and pour them into the sauce-pan, continuing to use the egg-beater until the whole boils, when the pan should be drawn aside where it will simmer gently for ten minutes, skimming off all scum as it rises. While simmering, prepare a piece of flannel by pouring through it a little warm water; and when the jelly has simmered ten minutes, pour it through this bag into a bowl, and repeat the process of straining until it is perfectly clear, when add a half gill of sherry (or brandy, or brandy and sherry mixed in equal proportions), stir well, pour into molds, and place upon ice or in a cool place until jelly sets and becomes firm enough to turn out and serve.
This is gelatin made from scratch, and the whole thing hinges on clarification: everything before the egg whites is stock-making, everything after is filtration. Rush the straining and you get cloudy amber jelly that tastes right and looks wrong.
- Sourcing the feetCalf's feet are a special order from a halal, kosher or old-style butcher, often sold already split. Two feet with three pints (6 cups) of water yields roughly a quart of finished jelly, enough for six to eight small molds.
- The blanch is not optionalThat first bring-to-the-boil-and-wash step removes scum and hair debris. Skipping it gives a greyer stock that is much harder to clarify.
- "Simmer very slowly for five hours"Hold the pot at 180-190F, with barely a bubble breaking. A rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and clouds it, and the egg white will not entirely correct that.
- Overnight settingChill the strained stock in the refrigerator, not on a counter as an unheated 19th-century larder implied. The fat cap lifts off cleanly at fridge temperature anyway.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone; a quarter pound is about half a cup of ordinary granulated. It is a light hand for a quart of jelly, so taste before molding.
- The egg raftWhisk only until the pan comes to the boil, then stop entirely and pull it to a bare simmer. Continued stirring shreds the coagulated raft and pushes the particles it has trapped back into the liquid.
- The flannel bagAny tight-woven cloth works: doubled cheesecloth, a scalded linen napkin, or a proper jelly bag. Wetting it with warm water first keeps it from absorbing jelly, and it must not be squeezed. Let gravity do it, and re-pour through the same cloth if the first run is hazy.
- Half a gill of sherryA gill is half a cup, so this is a quarter cup, added off the heat so the alcohol and aroma survive. Add it after the final straining, as directed.
- UnmoldingRinse molds with cold water before filling and chill at least four hours. Dip the mold briefly in warm water and invert onto a wetted plate, which lets you slide the jelly into position.
Calf's-foot jelly was the standard invalid food of the 19th century, prescribed for fevers and convalescence long before commercial gelatin existed; the feet are dense in collagen, and hours of slow simmering converts it to the gelatin that sets the liquid. That medical use explains the wine at the end, thought strengthening, and the near-obsessive clarification, since a sparkling jelly was proof of a careful cook and an appetizing thing to set before someone who did not want to eat. Buckeye Cookery appeared in 1877, at the tail end of this tradition: sheet and shred gelatin were already reaching American kitchens, and within a generation packaged gelatin would largely displace the two-day pot of feet. Recipes of this kind survive in old books partly as a record of how much labor a household was once willing to spend on a sick relative.