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ASPIC JELLY (a quick way of making)
Take a pint of nicely-flavoured, clear stock, put it into a saucepan with a glass of white wine, and a dessert-spoonful of tarragon vinegar. Put a large table-spoonful of gelatine with two of water, let it swell, then stir it in with the stock till it is dissolved; add the whites and crushed shells of two eggs, draw it back, and let it simmer for ten minutes; strain through a jelly-bag till clear, and pour it into a mould that has been soaked in cold water. Time to make, about half an hour. Sufficient for a pint and a half of jelly. Probable cost 10d.
A savoury setting jelly for coating cold cooked meat, eggs or fish, or for lining a mould. The whole thing hinges on the clarification: once the egg white goes in, the liquid must never be stirred or brought to a rolling boil.
- The clarificationWhisk the egg whites and crushed shells into the barely warm stock, then bring it slowly to a bare tremble. The coagulating white forms a raft that traps sediment; stirring or boiling breaks it up and you will be straining cloudy jelly.
- "Draw it back"Victorian shorthand for pulling the pan to the cooler edge of the range so it holds a shiver rather than a simmer. On a modern hob, the lowest setting or a heat diffuser, kept well below a boil.
- A glass of white wineA Victorian wine glass is generally reckoned at roughly 2 fl oz, though usage varied and the book does not define it; 2 to 4 fl oz will not upset the set. Use something dry — a sweet wine reads oddly against the tarragon.
- Dessert-spoonfulTwo teaspoons. A table-spoonful of powdered gelatine is nearer 9 or 10g, so somewhat more than one standard modern 7g envelope.
- Gelatine and the setOne envelope to a pint gives a soft jelly that will slice but stays tender; if your stock is already gelatinous from veal bones or trotters, that is enough. For a jelly firm enough to unmould in a tall shape, or to line a mould, use half again as much.
- StrainingA jelly-bag can be replaced by a double layer of scalded muslin in a sieve. Let it drip without squeezing, and pour the first cloudy run back through the bed of egg white that settles in the cloth.
- The mouldSoaking the mould in cold water rather than oiling it keeps the surface glassy — oil dulls aspic. Chill four hours or overnight, and dip the mould briefly in hot water to turn it out.
- YieldA pint and a half, as stated, which coats a large platter of cold meat.
Aspic — clear meat jelly used as a coating, a lining or a glaze — was one of the display techniques that defined nineteenth-century cold cookery, and the classical method took a day: a long-simmered stock from veal knuckle and calf's foot, reduced until it set of its own accord, then clarified. The name is generally traced to the French aspic, which is also a word for asp, usually explained by the jelly's cold glossy surface, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. What makes this entry a period marker is the phrase "a quick way": commercial sheet gelatine, established by mid-century, let a household cook borrow a grand-kitchen effect from a pint of ordinary stock in half an hour. Cassell's habit of costing each dish — tenpence here — was aimed squarely at that reader, the one running a small household without a French chef in the basement.