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Banana Jelly
Grate the peel of one lemon. Cut up the pulp of two lemons in small pieces, removing the pith, skin, and pips; put them in a glazed or enamelled pan, with the grated peel, one ounce of gelatine, half a pound of white sugar, and a pint and a half of water. Boil the jelly quietly, without the lid, until it is reduced to something less than a pint. Remove any scum that arises. When reduced, draw the pan to one side, and skim the jelly as it clears. Peel three large bananas, which should be very ripe, and cut them across in very thin slices. Strain the jelly on to the sliced bananas, mix together, and let them stand for ten minutes. Pour the jelly into a wetted mould, and stand in a cold place, or on ice, to set. It will take about six hours to set, and is better for standing longer. Turn out the jelly, and serve with half a pint of whipped cream. Probable cost, 1s. 3d.
A clear lemon jelly set in a mould with thin slices of banana suspended in it. The one thing worth knowing before you start is that prolonged boiling breaks down gelatine, which is why the original calls for such a large quantity.
- The hinge: don't boil the gelatineReduce the sweetened lemon water to slightly under a pint first, then take it off the heat and stir in the gelatine until fully dissolved. Prolonged boiling is generally held to weaken gelatine's setting power, and modern gelatine is at least more consistent in strength than the Victorian article.
- How much gelatineOne ounce is roughly four standard envelopes of powdered gelatine; in leaf it depends on the grade, from about eight thick leaves to sixteen thin ones. That is a firm, sliceable, distinctly old-fashioned set for a single pint of liquid. For a jelly that still turns out of a mould but eats tenderly, about half that quantity is enough.
- MeasuresA pint and a half here is an imperial pint and a half, 30 fl oz or about 850 ml; the finished jelly is a scant imperial pint, roughly 550 ml. Half a pound of sugar is 225 g.
- "Glazed or enamelled pan"The instruction exists because bare cast iron or unlined copper discolours citrus and gelatine. Any stainless or enamelled saucepan does the job now.
- SkimmingThe scum is protein and impurities from the gelatine and sugar, and skimming is what keeps the jelly transparent. Don't stir once it is off the heat, and lift the froth from the surface with a spoon rather than straining it back through.
- The bananasUse bananas ripe enough to be fragrant and slice them no thicker than a coin. Cut them at the last moment and get them into the acidic jelly promptly, or they will brown.
- Setting and mouldingSix hours in a domestic refrigerator is realistic and overnight is better, as the original says. Wet the mould rather than oiling it, and to turn out, dip the base briefly in hot water and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldA pint of jelly serves six modestly. The half pint of whipped cream is roughly 300 ml, which is generous by current tastes.
Bananas reached British tables only in small, expensive consignments before the 1880s, since they ripen and spoil too fast for slow sailing; regular imports depended on refrigerated steamers running from Jamaica and the Canaries, and the trade is generally traced to the last years of the nineteenth century, with Elders & Fyffes established in 1901. The technique itself is much older: clarified, skimmed gelatine jellies flavoured with lemon were a staple of the Georgian and Victorian confectioner, prized for transparency, and a tropical fruit suspended in one was a straightforward way of showing off both the ingredient and the cook's clear jelly.