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Silver Jelly
If properly made, this jelly will be perfectly clear and colourless. Put an ounce and a half of the best Russian isinglass into a saucepan, and pour over it a pint of cold water. Cover the pan closely, place it on a gentle fire, and let it remain until the isinglass is dissolved; then pour it out till cool. Rub the rind of two fresh lemons with three or four large lumps of sugar till the yellow part is taken off. Add sugar to make up the weight to three-quarters of a pound; put this into a bowl, and pour upon it half a pint of strained lemon-juice. Put the dissolved isinglass into a saucepan, and beat briskly into it the sugar and lemon-juice, together with the crushed shells, and well-whisked whites of four eggs. Place it on a gentle fire, and as soon as it begins to heat discontinue stirring it, and leave it quite still. Let it boil gently for five minutes; add half a pint of maraschino, and simmer three or four minutes longer. Take the saucepan from the fire, and let the preparation remain untouched for a quarter of an hour; then strain it through a jelly-bag till it is quite clear. Put it into a mould which has been soaked till the last moment in cold water, and lay it in a cool place to set. Time, ten minutes to boil the jelly. Probable cost, exclusive of the maraschino, 3s. Sufficient for about three pints of jelly.
A clarified wine-glass-clear jelly of the old school, set with isinglass and clarified with an egg-white raft. The technique is the whole point: everything here serves clarity.
- The hinge: leave the raft aloneOnce the pan begins to heat, stop stirring entirely. The whisked whites and crushed shells rise as a raft that traps every cloudy particle, and any agitation breaks it up and drives the sediment back into the liquid. The fifteen-minute rest off the heat lets the raft settle before straining.
- Isinglass to gelatinRussian isinglass is dried sturgeon swim bladder, sold in leaves and no longer a general grocery item. Modern powdered gelatin can be substituted at roughly the same weight — about 1½ oz (40–45 g), which is five or six standard ¼-oz envelopes for three pints, giving a jelly firm enough to turn out of a mould. Note that the original's setting strength was not standardised, so treat this as a starting point and test a spoonful on a cold saucer.
- Imperial measuresCassell's pint is 20 fl oz, so the pint of water is 2½ US cups and each half-pint is 1¼ cups. Half a pint of strained lemon juice means about eight or nine lemons; buy a dozen so two can be sacrificed for their rind.
- Rubbing the rind on sugarRubbing lump sugar over the lemons draws the zest oil into the sugar without adding any of the white pith or any liquid that would cloud the jelly. Sugar cubes work; a coarse rasp of zest stirred in is not the same thing and will need straining out.
- Boiling gelatinProlonged boiling weakens gelatin's setting power, so hold the boil to the five minutes given. Do not extend it in the hope of a clearer result.
- The maraschinoHalf an imperial pint (1¼ cups) of liqueur in three pints of jelly is a great deal of alcohol, and alcohol works against a firm set — some evaporates in the three or four minutes of simmering, but not much. If you cut the quantity, make up the volume with water and taste for sweetness.
- StrainingLet the jelly-bag drip. Squeezing or wringing it forces fine solids through and undoes the clarification. If the first run is not perfectly clear, pour it back through the same bag, which by then is lined with its own filter of coagulated white.
- Moulding and turning outThe mould is soaked in cold water so the jelly releases cleanly; wet it and drain it rather than oiling, which will dull the surface. Allow four to six hours in the refrigerator, or overnight for a large mould, and dip the outside briefly in warm water to unmould.
- YieldAbout three pints, or twelve to sixteen small servings. The stated cost of 3s. is expressly exclusive of the maraschino, which was the expensive item.
"Silver jelly" appears to be a name earned by appearance rather than ingredient — a jelly so free of colour and sediment that it reads as bright and metallic on the dish. Clarity of this order depended on isinglass, the collagen taken from the swim bladders of sturgeon, and the Russian grades were prized because they set colourlessly and without the faint animal flavour of boiled calf's-foot stock. Isinglass had a parallel life as the clearing agent in brewing and winemaking. The maraschino is the luxury: a cherry liqueur distilled from marasca cherries around Zara on the Dalmatian coast, imported in straw-covered bottles and a fashionable flavouring for creams and jellies.