Home › The Principles of Cookery › PRAWNS IN JELLY (a pretty supper dish)
PRAWNS IN JELLY (a pretty supper dish)
Take a quart of stiff calf's foot stock free from fat and sediment, and put it into a stewpan with half a dozen shallots, each one with a clove stuck in it, two bay-leaves, half a blade of mace, and a sprig of thyme. Let these simmer gently until the stock is pleasantly flavoured, then strain it into a bowl, and let it cool. Whisk the whites of two eggs with a little cold water. Stir this briskly into the stock, put it back into the saucepan, add the crushed shells of the eggs, and let the stock boil, but on no account stir it after it begins to boil up. Keep it boiling for a quarter of an hour, then lift it from the fire, and let it stand to settle for another quarter of an hour. Strain it through a jelly-bag until it is clear. Pour a little of the jelly into a damp mould. When it is firm, lay some prawns upon it with their backs downwards, and pour more jelly over them. Repeat until the mould is full, and be careful that each layer of jelly is set before another is put in. Put the jelly in a cool place, and turn it out before serving. If liked, the jelly may be made with isinglass or gelatine dissolved in water instead of calf's foot stock. Time, an hour to make the jelly. Sufficient for a three-pint mould.
A moulded aspic that depends entirely on two things: a stock stiff enough to unmould, and patience while each layer sets. Nothing here is difficult, but the sequence is unforgiving if rushed.
- The hinge: do not stir the raftOnce the egg white and shells are in and the stock reaches boiling, the coagulating white rises as a crust that traps sediment. Stirring breaks it and you will never get the jelly clear. Ladle the liquid out from under the raft, or pour gently through a scalded cloth or jelly-bag without disturbing it.
- Calf's foot stockTwo split calf's feet simmered for six to eight hours in water give a stock that sets hard on cooling; butchers will still order them. Test by chilling a spoonful — it should be rubbery, not merely thick. Pig's trotters behave the same way.
- Gelatine insteadFor a jelly firm enough to turn out of a mould, allow roughly 1 oz (about 28 g) of powdered gelatine per quart of well-flavoured stock or court-bouillon; sachet and leaf weights vary a good deal, so weigh rather than count. Isinglass, dried fish swim bladder (historically sturgeon), is a specialist item now and gelatine serves in its place.
- Measures and aromaticsA quart is 40 fl oz British, near enough 1.1 litres; the three-pint mould is about 1.7 litres, the prawns making up the difference. Blades of mace vary, so half a blade is perhaps an eighth to a quarter teaspoon ground. Shallots studded with cloves are pulled out at straining, so leave them whole.
- Season and sharpen it coldThe book leaves out salt and acid entirely. Taste the stock before clarifying and correct it while warm — cold jelly reads flat — and a tablespoon of dry sherry or lemon juice added before the final strain lifts the whole dish.
- The prawnsPrawns were commonly sold ready boiled and shelled at home. Use cooked, peeled cold-water prawns, patted dry; raw ones must be poached and cooled first, as nothing in this recipe cooks them.
- Setting the layers"A cool place" meant a larder. In a refrigerator each thin layer firms in 30 to 45 minutes. The jelly you pour over must be cool and syrupy, not warm, or it will melt the layer beneath and the prawns will float out of position.
- Turning outThe recipe calls for a damp mould rather than an oiled one, which helps the jelly release. Dip the mould to its rim in hot water for five seconds, no more, then invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into place.
- YieldA three-pint mould serves eight to ten as a cold supper or buffet dish, with brown bread and butter.
Aspic of this kind sat at the centre of the late-Victorian cold table, where clarity was the whole point: a jelly you could read a newspaper through advertised a cook who had mastered the raft and the jelly-bag. Before commercial gelatine was cheap, the setting power came from calf's feet boiled down for the best part of a day, or from isinglass, a collagen prepared from sturgeon swim bladders that was also used to fine beer and wine. Cassell's offers gelatine as an alternative here, which may suggest a shift already under way — packaged sheet and powdered gelatine came to be widely sold in the later nineteenth century, and the all-day foot stock was becoming a matter of choice rather than necessity. Prawns, sold ready boiled by fishmongers and hawkers in the coastal and London trade, were a natural filling: pink against a pale amber jelly, arranged backs down so the curve shows through when the mould is turned out. Dishes like this were made in the morning, left in the larder, and carried to the table at supper without further work, which may be part of why they suited households running on a single cook.