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Tomatoes with Aspic Jelly
Use rather small, firm tomatoes of uniform size. Pour boiling water over them and take off the skins, and put them in the refrigerator to cool. Soak 1/2 box of gelatine in 1/2 cupful of white stock. When dissolved add it to a cupful and a half more stock, season with 2 or 3 drops of Tabasco sauce, 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice, and salt to taste. Add a little caramel or green coloring. When the aspic is just ready to stiffen cut the tomatoes in slices, take out the seeds, and lay them in moulds; fill each mould to the top with the aspic and put on the ice to stiffen. Before serving turn out on a lettuce leaf on small plates, and serve either with or without mayonnaise dressing, and pass with them thin bread-and-butter or bread-and-cheese sandwiches. If no stock is at hand, extract of beef may be substituted in the right proportion. They may be also put in one large mould instead of the small ones.
A turn-of-the-century molded salad that depends on two things: the right gelatine ratio and a stock clear enough to see the tomato through. Everything else is assembly.
- Half a box of gelatineGranulated gelatine of this period was commonly sold in boxes of about an ounce divided into four envelopes, so half a box is roughly two envelopes, about 14 g; box sizes varied by brand, so treat this as an approximation. That amount will set the two cups of stock called for here firmly enough to unmold.
- Bloom, then dissolveSprinkle the gelatine over the half cup of cold stock and leave it five minutes to swell. Warm it gently to dissolve, then stir it into the remaining cup and a half; do not boil, which weakens the set.
- White stockA pale unbrowned stock from veal knuckle or chicken, made without onion skin or tomato. A good low-sodium chicken stock stands in. Skim the fat off completely and, if you want a jelly you can see through, clarify with an egg white and shell before adding the gelatine.
- Extract of beefThe named substitute is a concentrated meat paste such as Bovril or Liebig's. It is dark and very salty, so it works against the pale jelly the recipe wants; use it only if you are also using the caramel coloring, and hold back the salt.
- ColoringCaramel here means gravy browning, not confectionery caramel. The recipe offers green coloring as the alternative. Both are optional and the jelly is better looking without either if your stock is clear.
- Setting time"Put on the ice" means the coldest part of the refrigerator. Small molds need three to four hours, one large mold six hours or overnight. The instruction to fill the molds when the aspic is "just ready to stiffen" matters: syrupy aspic holds the tomato slices in place instead of letting them float.
- UnmoldingDip the mold to its rim in warm water for five seconds, run a thin knife around the edge, and invert onto the lettuce. Longer in the water and the outer surface goes cloudy and slack.
- YieldTwo cups of aspic fills about four half-cup molds, or one two-cup mold. Allow one small mold per person as a first course or lunch salad.
Aspic salads of this kind belong to the period when gelatine stopped being a two-day kitchen project and became a grocery purchase. Calf's-foot jelly had to be boiled down, clarified and strained by the cook; granulated gelatine sold by the box, from the 1890s onward, put a reliable set within reach of any household with an icebox, and molded vegetables, meats and fruits became common in cookbooks. The accompaniment tells you the meal: thin bread-and-butter and a little mayonnaise mark this as a luncheon or supper course rather than anything for the dinner table.