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Jelly, Egg
Rub six ounces of loaf sugar on the rinds of two lemons, squeeze out the juice of the lemons, and add water to make it up to a pint. Beat two eggs and put into a saucepan with the lemon-juice, sugar, and a one-ounce sheet of gelatine. Put on the fire, and whisk until almost but not quite boiling. Strain, set in little moulds until firm, turn out, and serve.
A lemon custard set with gelatine, cooked in one pan and turned out of small moulds. The whole thing hinges on heat control: the mixture must get hot enough to thicken the egg and dissolve the gelatine, but never reach a boil.
- Do not let it boilBoiling scrambles the egg and weakens gelatine's setting power, so the jelly turns grainy and slack. Whisk constantly over moderate heat until the mixture thickens and steams heavily, around 180F, then take it off at once.
- Loaf sugar and the lemon rindsLoaf sugar was a hard cone broken into lumps; ordinary granulated sugar works, but the rubbing step is the point. Dragging sugar over the zest strips out the peel oil, which carries far more lemon flavour than the juice does. Six ounces is a scant cup.
- The pintThis is a British book, so a pint is 20 fluid ounces, about 2 1/2 US cups. Squeeze the two lemons, then top up with water to that volume.
- One ounce of sheet gelatineVictorian sheet gelatine was sold in large flat leaves of variable strength and is not the same as modern leaf gelatine. For a pint of liquid firm enough to unmould, use about 1/2 oz (14 g, roughly 4 teaspoons) of powdered gelatine, or 7-8 modern platinum-grade leaves; the full ounce gives a rubbery set by current taste.
- Bloom the gelatine firstThe original drops the sheet straight into the pan, which was reasonable for the old leaves. Soften powdered or leaf gelatine in a little of the cold liquid for five minutes before heating, or you will be whisking against undissolved grains.
- Straining is not optionalEven a careful cook gets some coagulated egg and stray zest. Pour through a fine sieve into a jug before filling the moulds, or the jellies will be speckled.
- Moulds and turning outRinse small moulds or ramekins with cold water and do not oil them; chill at least four hours. Dip the base in warm water for a few seconds to release.
- YieldAbout a pint of jelly, filling four to six small moulds. Serve cold, on its own or with cream.
Egg jelly sits at the join between two older English sweets: the clear lemon jelly of the confectioner and the boiled lemon custard, here combined so that the egg clouds and enriches a set jelly rather than standing alone as a cream. It drills a technique that ran through Victorian sweet cookery, the careful heating of egg with acid and sugar without curdling. The rubbing of sugar on citrus rind, a standard direction in nineteenth-century kitchens, survives in the loaf-sugar era, often explained by the fact that a hard cone of sugar made an effective abrasive; the widespread adoption of packaged sheet and later powdered gelatine in the second half of the century is what made moulded jellies like this a matter of an hour's work rather than a day spent boiling calves' feet for stock.