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Gelatine Custard
To one-third package Coxe's gelatine, add a little less than one pint boiling water; stir until gelatine is dissolved, add the juice of one lemon, and one and a half cups sugar; strain through a jellystrainer into dish for the table, and set in a cool place. For custard, to one and a half pints milk add the yolks of four eggs (reserving the whites), and four table-spoons sugar; cook and flavor when cool. When required for the table, cut gelatine into small squares, and over them pour the custard. Add four table-spoons powdered sugar to the whites of four eggs well beaten, and when ready for the table place over the custard with a spoon. -Mrs. W. A. James.
Three separate preparations that meet only in the serving dish: a lemon jelly cut into cubes, a stirred custard poured over, and a sweetened raw meringue spooned on top. The custard is the part that can fail.
- The hinge: the custard must not boilThree cups milk with four yolks and four tablespoons sugar is a thin pouring custard. Cook it in a double boiler or over low heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the spoon and reaches 175-180F. Past 185F the yolks curdle and no amount of stirring brings it back.
- "One-third package Coxe's gelatine"Nineteenth-century gelatine boxes were not standardised, so this quantity cannot be converted exactly. For a jelly firm enough to cut into squares that hold their shape under warm custard, use two 1/4-oz envelopes (about 14 g total) of unflavoured powdered gelatin to the pint of liquid.
- Bloom the gelatin firstModern granulated gelatin should be sprinkled over about 1/4 cup cold water and left to swell five minutes, then dissolved in the hot water. Tipping the dry powder straight into boiling water, as the original implies, leaves undissolved grains that strain out and weaken the set.
- SugarOne and a half cups sugar in a pint of lemon jelly is very sweet by current taste, and the sweetness compounds with the custard and the meringue. Two-thirds of a cup gives a jelly that still tastes of lemon.
- The raw meringueThe whites are beaten with sugar and spooned on cold, never cooked or browned. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurised egg whites or whipped cream instead; unpasteurised whites carry a small salmonella risk.
- "Flavor when cool"The original leaves the flavouring unnamed. A teaspoon of vanilla stirred in after the custard has cooled is a common choice for a custard of this kind; nutmeg or a little sherry would also suit. Adding it hot drives off most of the aroma.
- Assembly and timingThe jelly needs four hours or overnight to set firm, and both jelly and custard must be thoroughly cold before they meet or the cubes soften into the sauce. Cut and combine no more than half an hour before serving, and add the meringue last.
- YieldRoughly six to eight servings. It is best in a glass bowl or individual glasses, where the lemon cubes suspended in pale custard are the whole point of the dish.
Packaged gelatine is what makes this recipe possible. A generation earlier, a jelly like this meant boiling calves' feet for hours or dissolving isinglass from fish air-bladders; the packaged product sold in boxes turned a day's work into a few minutes' stirring. The brand name here, spelled "Coxe's," is generally taken to be the sparkling gelatine of J. & G. Cox of Edinburgh, then widely imported and advertised in American papers; Knox's rival American product came later. The dish itself is a thrifty piece of construction: four yolks go into the custard, the four whites are beaten with sugar and returned to the top, and nothing is wasted. Its layered assembly of jelly, boiled custard and unbaked meringue anticipates the moulded gelatin desserts that became popular on American tables well into the twentieth century.