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Red Currant Solid
Dissolve half a pound of red currant jelly in a pint of cream, and add a little sugar if necessary. Stir in three-quarters of an ounce of isinglass which has been dissolved in a quarter of a pint of water, whisk the mixture for a few minutes, pour it into a damped mould of earthenware--not metal--and set it in a cool place. When wanted, turn it out carefully upon a glass dish, and serve. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. Sufficient for a quart mould.
A Victorian moulded cream, set with isinglass rather than leaf gelatine. It works well today, but the setting agent and the acid-plus-cream combination both need attention.
- The hinge: warm everything, boil nothingThe jelly should be melted into the cream over gentle heat, and the dissolved gelatine stirred in while the mixture is still warm to the touch. If the cream boils, the acid in the currant jelly can curdle it; if the mixture has cooled too far, the gelatine may set in threads before it is evenly dispersed.
- Isinglass to gelatineIsinglass is dried fish swim-bladder collagen and its strength varied enormously between grades, so three-quarters of an ounce is not a reliable figure to convert. The cream and water together make 1 1/4 pints, with the melted jelly bringing the total higher; set that volume to a firm turn-out mould with modern powdered or leaf gelatine at the quantity the packet gives, which will be in the region of 14 g of powder or six leaves.
- MeasuresA pint here is the imperial 20 fl oz, so about 2 1/2 US cups of cream; the quarter-pint of water for the gelatine is 5 fl oz. Half a pound of red currant jelly is 225 g.
- CreamNineteenth-century cream was unstandardised but rich. Single cream or half-and-half sets cleanly; double or heavy cream gives a heavier, almost buttery solid and benefits from being whisked only briefly.
- Earthenware, not metalThe instruction is not fussiness. Untinned copper and worn tinware reacted with acidic fruit, giving a metallic taste and worse. Modern stainless steel or silicone moulds are fine; glass and ceramic still turn out most cleanly.
- SugarCommercial currant jelly is already sweet, so taste before adding any. If sugar is needed, dissolve it in the warm cream rather than stirring it in cold.
- Setting and turning outAllow four to six hours in the refrigerator, or overnight for a full quart. Dip the mould in hot water for five seconds, wipe it dry, and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldA quart mould serves six to eight as a dessert. The probable cost of 3s. 6d. reflects the price of cream and imported isinglass, both then expensive.
A "solid" was a recognised class of Victorian sweet: a flavoured cream stiffened with isinglass and moulded, sitting between a blancmange and a modern panna cotta. Isinglass, prepared from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish and largely imported from Russia, was the standard household setting agent before commercially refined gelatine became cheap and reliable in the later nineteenth century, and it was also used to clarify wine and beer. Red currant jelly was the workhorse preserve of the English kitchen garden, made in quantity every July because currants are naturally high in pectin and set almost unaided; it appears throughout books of this period both as a sauce for mutton and venison and, as here, as a ready-made source of colour, acidity and sweetness in a dessert.