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Noyeau Jelly, with Almonds
Prepare one pint and a half of jelly according to the directions given in the last recipe. Blanch two ounces of almonds, cut them into thin shreds, and throw them into cold water. When the jelly is quite clear, put a little of it at the bottom of a damp mould. Let it set, then sprinkle half a tea-spoonful of the almonds upon it, and pour a little more jelly on. Repeat until the mould is full. Put the mould in a cool place, and turn the jelly out when quite stiff A little whipped cream may be put round it in the dish. Time, half an hour to clarify the isinglass. Probable cost, 2s., exclusive of the noyeau. Sufficient for a pint and a half mould.
A Victorian moulded jelly built in layers so the shredded almonds stay suspended rather than floating to the top. The technique is the whole point; the flavouring is left to the cook's judgement.
- The hinge: build it in thin layersEach layer must be set enough to hold the almonds but still tacky, and the jelly you pour on top must be liquid yet cool to the touch. Warm jelly will melt the layer beneath and the almonds will drift, which is precisely what the method exists to prevent.
- Isinglass and the jelly baseThe "last recipe" would have been a clarified isinglass jelly — isinglass being dried fish swim bladder, chiefly sturgeon, sold in sheets and clarified with egg white. Powdered or leaf gelatine can stand in for it, though the set is not identical; for a jelly firm enough to turn out of a 1.5-pint mould you want a touch more than the packet's standard setting ratio, around 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatine per pint of liquid.
- How much noyeauThe recipe never says, and the cost note pointedly excludes it. Noyeau is strong and sweet: work up from about 2 tablespoons per pint of jelly, tasting the warm liquid, and remember that alcohol softens a set — count it as part of your total liquid.
- MeasuresA pint and a half in an English kitchen of this date is 30 fl oz, or about 3.5 US cups. Two ounces of almonds is roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup whole blanched nuts once shredded.
- Blanching and the cold waterPour boiling water over the almonds, let them stand a minute, and the skins slip off. Shred them while still damp — dried blanched almonds split and crumble under the knife. The cold water keeps the cut shreds plump and white rather than drying and discolouring.
- Damp the mould, do not grease itRinsing the mould with cold water and leaving it wet is correct and still the best practice; oil clouds the surface of a clear jelly.
- Real timingThe stated half hour covers clarifying the isinglass only. Layer by layer, expect the whole assembly to take two to three hours in the refrigerator, and give it several more hours — overnight is safest — before turning out.
- Turning outDip the mould to its rim in warm, not hot, water for five to ten seconds, loosen the top edge with a fingertip, invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into position, and lift the mould straight up.
- YieldA 1.5-pint mould serves six to eight as a light dessert, with the whipped cream spooned around the base rather than over the jelly.
Noyeau (more often noyau, from the French for a fruit stone) is a sweetened spirit flavoured with the kernels of peaches, apricots or cherries, which carry the same bitter-almond note as marzipan; Noyau de Poissy, made near Paris, is the best-known surviving commercial version, and the almond-flavoured crème de noyaux behind many old cocktails belongs to the same family. Shredded almonds in the jelly might be read as a visual pun on the flavouring — the taste of kernels made literal. The recipe belongs to the great age of the moulded jelly, when a clear, firm, unclouded jelly demonstrated a cook's control of isinglass and egg-white clarification, and when copper moulds of increasing elaboration were a fixture of the well-equipped Victorian kitchen. The 2s. costed here deliberately excludes the liqueur, whose price varied; the later availability of gelatine as a cheap standardised powder is often said to be among the things that moved jellies from the confectioner's table to everyday domestic cooking.