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Calf's Foot Jelly, Orange
Put a quart of strong calf's foot stock into a saucepan with a pint of the strained juice of oranges, the juice of two lemons, a quarter of a pound of sugar, on which the rinds of the lemons have been rubbed, half an ounce of melted isinglass, and the whites and crushed shells of five eggs. Proceed as for calf's foot jelly. Three or four grains of saffron will improve the appearance of the dish. If it is preferred, the mould may be filled with alternate layers of jelly and quartered oranges, as directed in the recipe for Calf's Foot Jelly, Maraschino. Time to set, two hours with ice, ten or twelve without it. Probable cost, 1s. per pint. Sufficient, a pint and a half mould for five or six persons.
A Victorian moulded jelly built on gelatine extracted from calves' feet and clarified with egg white. The technique is straightforward but unforgiving in one respect: the clearing.
- The hinge — clarificationWhisk the egg whites and crushed shells into the cold liquid, then bring it up slowly, whisking until it is nearly at a boil, and stop whisking the moment the raft forms. From that point do not stir or the raft breaks and the jelly turns cloudy. Ladle it gently through a scalded jelly bag or a doubled cloth, and pour the first cloudy run back through.
- MeasuresThe book's measures are imperial: a quart is 40 fl oz (about 1.14 litres), a pint 20 fl oz (about 570 ml). A pint of strained orange juice takes roughly eight to ten juicing oranges. Half an ounce is about 14 g; a quarter pound of sugar is about 115 g, a little over half a cup.
- Calf's foot stockSplit calves' feet simmered for six to eight hours and the liquid chilled and skimmed of every trace of fat. "Strong" means it sets firm on its own when cold. Butchers rarely stock feet now; ask ahead, or accept that this dish is effectively a gelatine jelly.
- IsinglassDried sturgeon swim bladder, sold in leaf or shred and used as a setting agent alongside the stock. It is a specialist fining agent today, mostly in brewing. Half an ounce of powdered gelatine is the nearest working equivalent, but the total set depends entirely on how strong the stock is — taste and test a chilled spoonful before moulding.
- Sugar rubbed on the rindsRubbing lump sugar over the lemon zest until it is stained and fragrant draws out the peel oils. A modern shortcut is to muddle the sugar with finely grated zest and let it stand twenty minutes, then strain it out with the rest.
- Saffron'Three or four grains' most likely means individual threads, though 'grain' could also be read as the apothecary weight, which would be closer to a pinch. The recipe offers it only to improve the appearance against the pale stock. Steep the saffron in a spoonful of the warm liquid first so the colour disperses evenly.
- Setting"Two hours with ice" assumed an ice cave or a pail packed with ice and salt. A refrigerator will set a pint-and-a-half mould in four to six hours; overnight is safer. The ten to twelve hours without ice assumed a cold larder and is not a room-temperature instruction.
- Turning out and yieldRinse the mould with cold water before filling, and dip it three or four seconds in hot water to release. Serves five or six as the book says — a small portion by modern standards, but this is a rich, sweet set jelly.
Calf's foot jelly was one of the great invalid foods of the nineteenth century, the standard offering to convalescents and new mothers because it was thought both nourishing and easy on the stomach; it appears constantly in Victorian fiction as the gift carried to a sickroom. Its virtue at the table was clarity — a perfectly transparent jelly, tinted here with saffron and set in a shaped mould, was a display of kitchen skill, since it demanded long stock-making, meticulous skimming and a flawless egg-white clearing. Cassell's gives a whole family of these jellies, flavoured with maraschino, wine, orange or lemon, all worked from the same base, and gives a probable cost for each, as it does for virtually every recipe in the book. The dish faded once commercial powdered gelatine made the long extraction of collagen from feet and bones unnecessary, and the invalid-cookery tradition that sustained it went with it.