Home › Jellies and Jams › Lemon Jelly
Lemon Jelly
Three good-sized lemons sliced, half a pound white sugar, two ounces isinglass or gelatine dissolved in two quarts of cold water, a stick of cinnamon, and a little grated nutmeg. Beat the whites of three or four eggs, and when the gelatine is all dissolved stir them well with the other ingredients; boil five minutes, strain through a flannel jelly-bag into molds and set on ice; or the eggs, cinnamon and nutineg may be omitted. - Miss Ella L. Starr.
A clarified gelatin dessert of the kind that came out of a fluted copper mold at the table. The method is sound; the gelatin quantity and the straining step are where it needs attention.
- Isinglass and gelatine are not interchangeable by weightIsinglass is dried fish swim bladder, a collagen product sold in sheets or shreds and far more variable in strength than anything on a shelf today. Modern powdered gelatin sets about 2 cups of liquid per ¼-oz envelope, so 2 quarts needs roughly 1 oz — half what the recipe calls for. Two ounces of current powder gives a rubbery, sliceable jelly rather than a trembling one.
- Weights and volumesHalf a pound of white sugar is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons; that is restrained for 2 quarts, and the finished jelly is tart. Two quarts of water is 8 cups. Three "good-sized" lemons would yield something like ½ to ¾ cup of juice, though here they go in sliced.
- The egg whites are a clarifying raft, not an ingredientBeaten whites coagulate as the liquid heats and trap the cloudy particles. Stir them in while the liquid is still cool, then stop stirring once it comes up to heat or the raft breaks apart and you lose the point of it. This is why the recipe says the eggs may be omitted — you get the same jelly, just cloudy.
- Do not hard-boil itA rolling boil can weaken gelatin's set and will drive off some of the lemon aroma. Bring it just to a simmer, hold it there while the raft forms, then strain.
- StrainingA flannel jelly-bag is replaced by a sieve lined with damp muslin or two coffee filters. Let it drip; squeezing pushes fines through and undoes the clarification.
- Sliced lemons mean peel and pithThe whole sliced fruit gives oil and perfume but also bitterness if it steeps too long. Fifteen to twenty minutes of infusion is plenty before straining.
- Setting"Set on ice" means standing the filled molds on ice to chill. Refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, or overnight for a mold. To unmold, dip the mold in warm water for a few seconds and invert.
- YieldTwo quarts, which serves 8 to 10 — a party quantity.
Molded jellies were a display dish before they were a dessert: clear, quivering, and expensive in labor, they signaled a cook who could clarify stock or gelatin properly. Isinglass, the older setting agent named here, was made from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish and was also used to fine beer and wine; by the time Buckeye Cookery appeared in 1877, commercial sheet and shredded gelatine was displacing it, which is why the recipe offers both without comment. The egg-white raft is borrowed straight from consomm\---making, and the flannel jelly-bag was standard equipment in a kitchen that also strained fruit jellies. Like much of the book, the recipe carries a contributor's name — a reminder that Buckeye Cookery was assembled from the receipts of Ohio housewives rather than written by a single author.