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Plum Shape
Put one-half pound of fine ripe plums into an enameled saucepan, pour over them one cup of sugar and one cup of water, and simmer gently until they are quite soft. Remove the stones, and drain off the syrup. Put the pulp into a bowl, return the syrup to the saucepan, and dissolve in it one-half ounce of gelatine which has been softened in a little cold water. If not sweet enough, add more sugar, then add the plum pulp, and one-half cup of blanched almonds coarsely chopped. Mix all well together, pour the mixture into a border mold, and stand aside to set. When quite cold, turn out onto a glass dish, and fill up the center with whipped cream. Stick blanched almonds cut in strips all over the jelly.
A Victorian molded jelly, set stiff enough to stand on its own and hold whipped cream in the middle. Two things decide whether it works: the gelatine ratio and how much syrup you actually have left after cooking.
- The gelatineHalf an ounce is 14 g, or two 1/4-oz envelopes of modern powdered gelatine. Soften it in a few tablespoons of cold water for five minutes, then stir it into the hot syrup off the heat until no grains remain; boiling gelatine weakens its set.
- Syrup volume is the hingeYou start with a cup of water and a cup of sugar, but simmering and draining leaves you with less liquid than that, and the recipe assumes a firm result. Measure the drained syrup: 14 g of gelatine will set roughly 2 cups of liquid firmly enough to unmold, so top up with water if you have much less, or the shape will be rubbery rather than tender.
- Why enameledPlums are acidic, and enamel avoids the bare iron or unlined copper that can discolor fruit and lend a metallic taste. Any stainless or enameled pan is fine now.
- Stoning the plumsHalving and pitting the plums before cooking is easier than fishing stones out of hot pulp, and it costs nothing in flavor. Do not crack the stones for the kernels.
- Almonds"Blanched almonds" means sweet almonds with the skins slipped off after a minute in boiling water; supermarket blanched slivered almonds work directly. Half a cup chopped goes into the jelly and a further handful, cut lengthwise into strips, studs the outside.
- Border moldA ring mold, about 1 quart. Rinse it with cold water before filling, and to turn out, dip the base in hot water for a few seconds and invert onto a chilled plate.
- Setting time"Stand aside to set" meant a cool place or ice box; use the refrigerator, at least 4 hours and better overnight. The chopped almonds will float or sink as it sets unless you let the mixture cool to the point of thickening before pouring it in.
- YieldSix small servings. It is sweet and firm, so serve it in modest slices with plenty of the whipped cream from the center.
A "shape" was simply any dessert turned out of a mold and expected to hold that shape on the dish, a category common in the cold-sweet chapters of late-Victorian and Edwardian cookbooks. The form depended on cheap, reliable gelatine: a cook wanting jelly earlier in the nineteenth century boiled calves' feet or used isinglass, while by the turn of the century sheet and powdered gelatine were sold in packets by weight, which is likely why the recipe can specify half an ounce and expect the reader to know what that means. The border mold with a cream-filled center is a familiar piece of period presentation, and the almonds stuck over the surface do the work a fruit garnish or piped cream would do now. Plums suit the treatment because they are acidic and richly colored, giving a jelly with enough sharpness to carry a full cup of sugar.