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Wine Jelly, Claret
Take a pint of water, half a pint of good claret, a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar, the rind and juice of two large lemons, a clove, a small piece of stick cinnamon, and an ounce and a half of sheet gelatine. Put all into a clean pan, add the crushed shells (previously washed) and the whites of two eggs beaten up with a spoonful or two of water. Whisk until the mixture boils, then set the pan aside for ten minutes. It must never be stirred after boiling point is reached, and the crust which forms on the top must remain intact. Strain through a jelly bag or damask napkin, and pour into a mould. Set in a cold place to solidify. Sufficient for a pint and a half mould. Probable cost, 1s. 4d.
A Victorian clarified wine jelly, set in a mould and turned out. Two things decide whether it works: the egg-white raft that clears it, and a gelatine quantity that no longer means what it did.
- The gelatine is the problemAn ounce and a half (about 42 g) of gelatine to a pint and a half of liquid would set like a rubber ball with today's product. Victorian sheet gelatine was variable in quality and generally less reliable in setting strength than the modern graded product; modern gold or platinum leaf sets a demouldable jelly at roughly 18-20 g per litre, so around 15-16 g here. Weigh it rather than counting sheets, since sheet weights vary by brand and grade.
- Never stir after boilingThe egg whites and crushed shells coagulate into a raft that traps cloudiness. Whisk continuously only until the moment it boils, then stop entirely, draw the pan off the heat and leave the crust unbroken while it stands. Any stirring drives the sediment back into the liquid and the jelly turns dull.
- StrainingScald the jelly bag or napkin with boiling water first so the jelly does not chill and clog in the cloth. Ladle the liquid gently through, breaking the raft as little as possible, and pass the first cloudy run back through a second time. Do not squeeze the bag.
- MeasuresThese are imperial pints of 20 fl oz: a pint of water is about 570 ml, half a pint of claret about 285 ml. Quarter of a pound of loaf sugar is 115 g; loaf sugar meant refined cane sugar broken from a cone, so ordinary granulated is the direct equivalent.
- ClaretIn a British book of this date claret means red Bordeaux, dry and moderately tannic. Any dry, unoaked red will do; heavily oaked or very tannic wine turns harsh once the water and sugar are around it. The alcohol is not fully driven off in the brief boil.
- Lemon rindPare the rind thinly with no white pith, which will make the jelly bitter over the standing and straining time. Strain the juice before it goes in so pulp does not burden the raft.
- Setting and turning outA pint-and-a-half mould needs at least four hours in the refrigerator, better overnight. To unmould, dip the mould to its rim in hot water for a few seconds, no more, then invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into place.
- YieldAbout 850 ml, serving six as a light dessert. The recipe gives the probable cost as 1s 4d.
Clear wine jellies were a set piece of the Victorian dessert table, and their prestige lay entirely in transparency: a jelly you could read newsprint through advertised a cook with patience and a good jelly bag. Earlier generations got their setting power from calf's foot or hartshorn, boiled down for hours and skimmed of fat, which is why so many eighteenth-century jelly recipes begin a day ahead. Commercially prepared sheet gelatine, widely available in Britain by the second half of the nineteenth century, collapsed that labour into an ingredient bought by the ounce, and books like Cassell's could then treat a moulded jelly as an everyday item with a stated cost in shillings and pence. The egg-white-and-shell raft is the older technique surviving intact into the new convenience: it is the same clarification used for consomm hthe crust is the whole of the method in one line. Claret, meaning red Bordeaux, was fashionable and widely drunk in Britain in this period, alongside port and sherry, and it brings a recipe both colour and a little astringency.