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Dutch Flummery
Pare the rind of a lemon very thin, and infuse it in a pint of water with half a pound of sugar. Set it on the fire until the sugar is dissolved, and the syrup well flavoured. Add two ounces of isinglass and stir till this also is melted, then throw in the strained juice of four lemons, a tumblerful of wine, and the yolks of eight eggs. Strain the mixture, put it into a jug, set the jug in a saucepan of boiling water, and stir until the flummery thickens. Take it out of the water, allow it to cool, and then pour it into moulds. A wine-glassful of brandy may be added to the syrup, but in that case just so much less water will be required. Probable cost, exclusive of wine or brandy, 3s. Time, three or four minutes. Sufficient for a quart mould.
A wine-and-lemon egg jelly of the sort that dominated Victorian dessert tables. It is a stirred custard set with gelatine, and it fails in exactly the two places you would expect: scrambled yolks and a set that is either rubbery or nonexistent.
- The hinge: keep the jug out of a hard boilThe jug-in-a-saucepan is a bain-marie, and the water underneath should be barely trembling, not rolling. Stir constantly and pull the mixture the moment it coats the back of a spoon (around 180F); the acid from four lemons makes the yolks curdle readily.
- Isinglass to gelatineIsinglass is dried sturgeon swim bladder, and its setting power varied wildly by grade, so 2 oz is not directly convertible. For a quart mould of this liquid, modern powdered or leaf gelatine at about 1/2 to 3/4 oz (roughly 2-3 standard 7 g sachets) gives a jelly firm enough to unmould; bloom it in a little of the cold water first rather than stirring it into hot syrup.
- Old measuresA tumblerful is about half a pint, 8-10 fl oz. A wine-glassful is roughly 2 fl oz. A quart mould in imperial terms holds 40 fl oz, about 1.1 litres.
- The timing is wrong"Three or four minutes" describes the thickening only after the mixture is already hot. From a cold start expect 10-15 minutes of steady stirring, then several hours in the mould -- overnight is safer for a clean turn-out.
- Pare the rind, not the pith"Very thin" is doing real work here. Any white pith infused in the syrup will turn the finished jelly bitter, and there is nothing but sugar to hide it behind.
- Strain twiceThe recipe strains once, after the yolks go in. Strain again through a fine sieve after thickening to catch any threads of cooked egg; the finished flummery should be smooth, not speckled.
- Wine and brandyA sweet sherry, Madeira or white port suits the sugar level better than a dry table wine. If you add the brandy, reduce the water as the original says, so that the total liquid stays the same.
- YieldA quart mould serves eight as a dessert. Dip the mould briefly in warm water to release it, and serve cold -- it softens quickly in a warm room.
Flummery began as something quite different: llymru, a Welsh dish of oatmeal steeped until sour and boiled to a pale, wobbling jelly, eaten with milk or honey. By the eighteenth century English cooks had kept the name and thrown out the oats, applying "flummery" to any moulded sweet jelly, usually set with calf's-foot stock or isinglass and enriched with cream and almonds. The "Dutch" version is the wine-and-egg-yolk branch of the family, and the qualifier is generally taken as a nod to the richer, wine-heavy Continental style rather than to any documented Netherlandish original. Isinglass was a luxury setting agent of the period -- imported, expensive, and prized because it gave a clearer jelly than boiled bones, which may help explain the probable cost of three shillings for what is essentially lemons, sugar and eggs. Its later displacement by cheap commercial gelatine is one reason recipes like this one faded from household books.