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Solid Raspberry
Dissolve half a pint of raspberry jelly, or rub a pint of the fruit through a sieve; add two ounces of powdered sugar and a table-spoonful of lemon-juice. Stir the mixture till it is almost cool, then add three-quarters of an ounce of isinglass or gelatine which has been dissolved in a tea-cupful of water, and stir it again for a few minutes. Mix lightly with half a pint of solid cream (see last recipe) and turn into a damp mould. Care must be taken to use an earthenware, not a metal mould, or the colour of the solid will be spoilt. Time, about twelve hours to set the solid. Probable cost, 3s. Sufficient for a quart mould.
A Victorian moulded raspberry cream. The only real difficulty is the setting agent: old isinglass was much weaker than modern gelatine, so following the weight as written gives a rubbery block.
- Gelatine quantityThree-quarters of an ounce (about 21 g) of Victorian isinglass is far more than modern gelatine needs. For the roughly 700 ml of liquid here, 11-14 g of powdered gelatine (1½ to 2 standard envelopes) or 6-7 leaves gives a mould that stands but still cuts softly.
- Solid creamThe "solid cream" of the previous recipe is almost certainly whipped cream, though that recipe is not reproduced here. Use double or heavy cream, about half a pint (285 ml), whipped until it holds its shape but is not grainy.
- Imperial measuresA half pint here is 10 fl oz (about 285 ml), not the US 8 oz. A teacupful is roughly 5-6 fl oz. Two ounces of powdered sugar is about 55 g of caster or superfine sugar.
- Raspberry jellyThis means a seedless raspberry preserve, gently melted, not a gelatine dessert. Fresh fruit sieved to a purée works equally well and tastes brighter; a pint of raspberries yields roughly 300 ml of purée.
- Temperature is the hingeThe dissolved gelatine must go into a mixture that is cool but still fluid, and the cream folded in immediately after. Too hot and the cream deflates and the gelatine settles in a layer; too cold and it sets in threads before it is mixed.
- The mouldThe warning about metal was sound with untinned copper and pewter, which react with fruit acid. Modern stainless steel or silicone is inert; glass or ceramic still unmoulds most cleanly after a brief dip in warm water.
- Setting timeTwelve hours reflects an unrefrigerated larder. In a refrigerator four to six hours is enough for a quart mould, though overnight does no harm.
- YieldA quart mould serves eight to ten as part of a dessert course. The stated cost of 3s. is a period retail figure and no guide to anything now.
In nineteenth-century English cookery a "solid" was a cream or fruit pury and turned out of a shaped mould. Isinglass, the collagen from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, was the standard setting agent before commercially refined gelatine became cheap and reliable in the later part of the century; this recipe offers the two as alternatives without acknowledging that their strengths differ. Cassell's includes the dish among a run of moulded creams, which could be made the day before, unmoulded at the last minute, and required no oven. The instruction about earthenware rather than metal is a genuine trace of the Victorian kitchen, where copper and pewter moulds could discolour acidic fruit.