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ARROWROOT JELLY (another way)
Mix two table-spoonfuls of arrowroot with a little water, and pour upon the paste a half pint of boiling water, and a half pint of white wine sweetened and flavoured with almond or lemon flavouring. Stir it well; then put it again on the fire, still continuing to stir it until it is quite thick. Pour it into a mould which has been soaked in cold water; turn it out the next day, and serve it with cream-custard or jam. Time to boil with the arrowroot, three or four minutes. Sufficient for a pint mould. Probable cost, 4d., without the wine and cream, etc.
A thickened wine mould rather than a gelatine jelly — the arrowroot alone does the setting, so it turns out soft and sliceable rather than wobbly. Two details govern success: the cold slurry and not overcooking the starch.
- Slake the arrowroot firstThe "little water" means a small quantity of cold water worked into the arrowroot until smooth before any hot liquid touches it. Arrowroot dropped dry into boiling liquid seizes into lumps that will not disperse.
- Don't boil it hard or longThree or four minutes at a bare simmer is the outside limit, as the recipe says. Arrowroot thins again if held at a rolling boil, and the finished jelly will slump instead of setting.
- MeasuresA half pint in an English book of this date is 10 fl oz, so the two liquids together come to about 2½ US cups. The tablespoons are level rather than heaped; roughly 16-20 g of arrowroot in all.
- The wineThe recipe calls for white wine, separately sweetened; sherry, Madeira or a sweet white would all suit. Adding it off the heat will preserve more of the alcohol and aroma than stirring it in during the simmer.
- Almond flavouringVictorian almond flavouring was often essence of bitter almonds. Use modern almond extract, and sparingly — a few drops in a pint is enough, as it overwhelms very quickly.
- The mouldSoaking the mould in cold water leaves a film that stops the jelly gripping the metal. A quick rinse and shake-out does much the same job.
- Setting time"Turn it out the next day" is what the recipe directs; overnight in the refrigerator suits. Give it several hours cold to firm before attempting to unmould.
- YieldOne pint mould, serving four as a light dessert. Cream-custard means a thin pouring custard rather than a set one.
Arrowroot — the starch of Maranta arundinacea, imported chiefly from the West Indies through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — held a peculiar place in Victorian kitchens as the invalid's thickener. It was prized for being bland, easily digested and, unlike wheat flour, setting clear rather than cloudy, which made it a standard base for the light wine jellies and gruels sent up to sickrooms. A wine version like this one straddles two purposes — a strengthening dish for a convalescent in one house, a cheap alternative to a calf's-foot or isinglass jelly in another. The note that it is "sufficient for a pint mould" is the kind of household arithmetic that runs through the whole dictionary.