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Jelly, Russian
Peel two lemons and an orange very thinly, cut them in halves crosswise, squeeze the juices into an enamelled saucepan, put in the peels and one pint of cold water, together with four ounces of sugar, and one ounce of gelatine previously soaked in water. Stir over the fire until quite hot but not boiling, and strain through a sieve into a basin. Allow the mixture to get cool, then stir with a whisk until it becomes frothy; pour it into a mould, and stand in a cool place until set. Turn out, and serve.
A whisked lemon jelly, aerated by beating as it cools so it sets pale and foamy rather than clear. Two things decide whether it works: the gelatine quantity and the moment you start whisking.
- Gelatine strength has changedAn ounce of gelatine to a pint of liquid gives a firm, rubbery set by modern standards. Modern powdered gelatine is more consistent in strength: about ½ oz (roughly 4 level teaspoons) per pint is enough for a jelly that turns out of a mould and still eats tenderly. With leaf gelatine, follow the maker's stated quantity per pint rather than a fixed leaf count, since leaf weights and grades vary.
- Bloom it first"Previously soaked in water" means what it says. Sprinkle powder over a few tablespoons of cold water, or submerge sheets, and leave 5-10 minutes until swollen before it goes near heat, or you get gritty undissolved granules.
- Hot but not boilingThe hinge of the recipe. Boiling degrades gelatine's setting power and dulls the citrus. Bring it to no more than about 140-150F (60-65C), just enough to dissolve sugar and gelatine, then strain.
- Why an enamelled panLemon and orange juice pit bare iron and react with untinned copper or aluminium, giving a metallic taste and grey colour. Stainless steel, enamel or glass are all fine now.
- When to whisk"Cool" is imprecise and matters enormously. Wait until the mixture is cold and just beginning to thicken at the edges - syrupy, the consistency of raw egg white - then whisk hard. Whisk too early and the foam collapses; too late and you beat a set jelly into lumps. Setting it over a bowl of iced water and whisking as it thickens is the reliable method.
- Peel thinlyTake only the coloured zest with a peeler. Any white pith steeping in the hot syrup turns the jelly bitter, and the peels should be lifted out with the straining rather than left to infuse indefinitely.
- Quantities in modern terms1 pint of water: use an imperial pint (20 fl oz / 568 ml) as the book intends. 4 oz sugar is a generous ½ cup.
- The mouldRinse the mould with cold water and leave it wet - do not oil it, which streaks a foamy jelly. Chill 4 hours or overnight; dip the mould briefly in warm water and turn out onto a wetted plate.
- YieldThe recipe states none. A pint of water plus the citrus juices, whisked to a froth, will need a generously sized mould and serves about four.
Whisked or "whipped" jellies were a standard of the late nineteenth-century sweet course, made easier by commercially packaged sheet gelatine, which was on sale from the middle of the century, though calves'-feet and isinglass jellies persisted alongside it. Beating a setting jelly doubles its bulk and turns it opaque and pale, which is why such dishes were often called snow or Russian - the latter perhaps a fashionable culinary adjective of the period, plausibly applied loosely to cold moulded and iced dishes in the wake of charlotte russe and service his connasoning is speculative, and no documented Russian original is known. Cassell's gives it as a short alphabetical dictionary entry.