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Wine Jelly II
1/2 box gelatine or 2 1/2 tablespoons granulated gelatine 1/2 cup cold water 1 2/3 cups boiling water 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup Sherry wine 2 tablespoons brandy Kirsch 1/3 cup orange juice 3 tablespoons lemon juice Fruit red Soak gelatine twenty minutes in cold water, dissolve in hot water, add sugar, fruit juices, Sherry, brandy, and enough Kirsch to make one cup of strong liquor, then color with fruit red. Strain, mould, and chill. Serve with or without Cream Sauce I.
A molded wine jelly of the sort turned out for a cold sideboard or a sick-room tray. The proportions work, but the gelatine measure and the kirsch instruction both need translating.
- The gelatineA box of granulated gelatine held four envelopes, so half a box is two envelopes. Modern envelopes are a quarter ounce each and measure less than the 2 1/2 tablespoons given here, so go by the tablespoon measure.
- How much kirschThe wine, brandy and kirsch together are meant to total one cup. Sherry (1/2 cup) plus brandy (2 tablespoons) is 10 tablespoons, so add roughly 6 tablespoons of kirsch.
- Alcohol and setAlcohol weakens a gelatine set, so do not increase the liquor, and give the mould a full 6 hours in the refrigerator, overnight if you want clean unmoulding. None of the alcohol is cooked off.
- Fruit redA commercial red colouring of the period, sometimes cochineal-based. Any red food colouring serves; a few drops only, as the jelly should read as a clear garnet, not opaque.
- Strain before mouldingThe point of straining is clarity. Pour through a fine sieve lined with damp muslin and do not stir or skim afterwards, or you will fold in bubbles that set as cloud.
- DissolvingSoak in the cold water until the granules swell, then add the boiling water off the heat and stir until no grains remain on a spoon back. The recipe adds the liquor straight in; letting the mixture cool to lukewarm first keeps the aromatics from being driven off.
- YieldAbout a quart, enough for a 1-quart mould and six to eight servings. Cream Sauce I, referenced at the end, is a separate recipe in the book; sweetened whipped cream is the usual stand-in.
Wine jelly belongs to the era when granulated gelatine came out of a box rather than a hide-and-bone boiling of calves' feet, a shift that put moulded jellies within reach of any household cook in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It sat in two places at once: on the dessert table as a glittering centrepiece, and on the invalid's tray, where wine jelly was long recommended as a light, restorative food for convalescents. The sherry-brandy-kirsch combination here is the richer, table version, and the instruction to top up with kirsch until the spirits reach a full cup shows the cook was working to a fixed ratio of liquor to jelly rather than a fixed recipe. Fruit red is a reminder that colouring desserts by bottle was, by this date, entirely ordinary.