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Goose in Jelly, or Duck in Jelly
Put the goose in a deep stewpan, and barely cover it with clean stock, or water. Put with it a dessert-spoonful of salt, a tea-spoonful of pepper, two large onions, two bay-leaves, two or three sprigs of lemon thyme and sweet basil, with a small piece of tarragon. Put the cover on the saucepan, and simmer gently, until the meat parts easily from the bones. Take out the goose, drain it from the gravy, remove the bones, which may be returned to the saucepan, and boiled a little longer, and cut the meat into convenient-sized pieces. Skim off the fat, add a little more pepper and salt to the gravy, if necessary, strain it through a jelly-bag, and mix with an ounce of good gelatine, which has been soaked in cold water for half an hour or more. Put a little of the jelly into the bottom of the mould. Let it set, then put in any pretty ornamental devices, such as hard-boiled eggs, sliced beetroot, pickles, etc.; pour a little more jelly over these, and, when it is stiff, put in the pieces of meat, leaving room for the jelly to flow between them. Let the dish remain until the next day, then turn out, and garnish according to taste. Time to simmer the goose, two hours, or a little more. Sufficient for a breakfast, luncheon, or supper dish. Probable cost of goose, 6s.; or a couple of ducks instead may be prepared in this way.
A Victorian cold-table dish that is essentially a home-made aspic of poached goose. The work is spread over two days, and the only real skill is judging the strength of the jelly.
- Gelatine to liquidAn ounce of gelatine will set roughly 2 pints (about 1 litre) of stock to a firm, sliceable jelly that turns out of a mould. Reduce or strain off any excess stock to that quantity before adding the gelatine, or the mould will slump. Leaf gelatine works at the same weight; soak it in cold water and squeeze it out before stirring into the warm, not boiling, stock.
- The hinge: degrease properlyGoose renders a great deal of fat, and any left in the stock will set as a pale greasy layer through the jelly and dull the flavour. Chill the strained stock until the fat caps solid, lift it off, then blot the surface with kitchen paper before setting the jelly.
- The jelly-bagA jelly-bag is a cone of close-woven flannel or calico for straining without pressing. A double layer of damp muslin in a sieve does the same job; let it drip rather than squeezing, or the jelly will be cloudy.
- Simmering timeTwo hours is right for a young goose, but an older bird may need three. Judge by the original test: the meat should part from the bone without resistance. Keep the water at a bare tremble; a rolling boil emulsifies the fat back into the stock and makes it impossible to clear.
- Bones returned to the potBoiling the stripped carcass on, as the recipe says, 'a little longer' concentrates the natural gelatine and can improve the set. If you do this, you may need less than the full ounce of added gelatine; test a teaspoonful on a cold saucer before committing the whole mould.
- Setting and storage"Let the dish remain until the next day" meant a cold larder. Set and keep it in the refrigerator; a stock-based jelly holding cooked poultry is a good bacterial medium at room temperature. Eat within three days.
- Turning outDip the mould in hot water for five to ten seconds, no longer, then invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into position. Wetting the mould before you start also helps.
- Yield and costThe recipe gives no mould size or number of servings, only that it is 'sufficient for a breakfast, luncheon, or supper dish'; a whole goose set in a large mould will feed a table of eight or so, and a couple of ducks give rather less meat. The 6s. quoted for the goose reflects Victorian prices and is of historical interest only.
Cold moulded meats in aspic were a fixture of the Victorian and Edwardian sideboard, where breakfast, luncheon and supper were often served cold and self-service from a laid table. The dish is an economical one: it uses a whole bird slowly, turns the bones back into the pot for a second extraction, and produces something that looks considerably grander than its cost. The decorative layer of hard-boiled egg, beetroot and pickle set into the base is pure period style "" the mould was turned out so the ornament sat on top. Commercial powdered and sheet gelatine were by this date available alongside the older practice of clarifying calf's-foot stock, which is why the recipe can specify "an ounce of good gelatine" as a matter of course; the qualifier "good" mattered, as commercial gelatines varied a great deal in setting strength.