Home › The Principles of Cookery › Calf's Foot Jelly of Four Fruits
Calf's Foot Jelly of Four Fruits
Dissolve one pint of calf's foot apple jelly (see CALF'S FOOT APPLE JELLY), and pour about a quarter of it into an earthenware mould; let it nearly set, then arrange, as tastefully as possible, fine fresh bunches of white and red currants, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, or any fruit that can be had. If fresh fruits are not in season, any fruits which have been preserved whole may be used instead, such as peaches, plums, or apricots. Add the jelly and the fruit gradually before more is put in. Set it in a cool place, and when stiff, it may be turned out. Probable cost, 10d. per pint mould. Time to set, twelve hours.
A moulded fruit jelly built in layers, and almost all of the difficulty lies in the setting rather than the flavouring. The original assumes a cold larder and a jelly made from calf's feet; both need translating.
- The base jellyCalf's foot apple jelly is apple juice set with the gelatine boiled out of split calf's feet, then clarified. Powdered or leaf gelatine gives much the same result with none of the long stock work: set about 2 1/2 cups of clear, sweetened apple juice with gelatine at the firm end of the maker's directions, since a moulded jelly must hold its shape unsupported.
- What a pint means hereCassell's is British, so the pint is 20 fl oz — about 2 1/2 US cups. "A quarter of it" is therefore about 5 fl oz, roughly 2/3 cup, for the first layer.
- The hinge: let each layer half-setFruit added to liquid jelly floats to the top and slides when turned out. Each layer must be tacky and barely mobile — set at the edges, still soft in the centre — before fruit is arranged on it and more warm (not hot) jelly is spooned over. Hot jelly poured onto a set layer will melt a channel through it.
- Fruit to avoidFresh pineapple, kiwi, papaya and fresh figs contain proteases that digest gelatine and will leave the mould a soupy mess; fresh mango is sometimes listed too. Cooked or canned versions of these are harmless. The currants, cherries, raspberries and strawberries the recipe names are all safe.
- Preserved fruitWhole bottled peaches, plums and apricots work as the recipe says, but drain them well and blot them dry; carried-over syrup thins the jelly locally and gives soft patches.
- Twelve hours in a cool placeThat is larder time. In a refrigerator the layers firm in 20-30 minutes each and the finished mould needs 4-6 hours, though overnight does no harm and makes turning out easier.
- Turning outAn earthenware mould holds cold well but grips. Dip it in hot water for 5-10 seconds, wipe it, and invert onto a wetted plate — the wet surface lets you slide the jelly into position rather than committing to where it lands.
- YieldA pint mould serves four to six as a dessert course, or more alongside other sweets in the Victorian manner.
"Four fruits" is a translation of the French quatre fruits, a standard confectioner's mixture of red currants, raspberries, cherries and strawberries that turns up in jams, syrups and jellies through the nineteenth century; the name survived even when, as here, the cook is told to use whatever is in season. The base is older and more utilitarian: calf's foot jelly was for generations the standard invalid food of English cookery, the feet being simmered for hours to draw out gelatine, then the liquor clarified with egg white and flavoured with wine, lemon or — as in this book's companion recipe — apple. By the time Cassell's Dictionary appeared, packaged sheet and powdered gelatine from firms such as Nelson's and Cox's was widely sold, and a recipe like this one sits at the turning point: the technique still assumes homemade jelly stock, while the presentation, all clear layers and suspended fruit, belongs to the era of the elaborate moulded entremets and the ice house that made them possible.