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Orange Jelly
Moisten one-half package of Larkin Gelatine in one-half cup of cold water. Dissolve in one cup of freshly boiled water, adding one cup of sugar, one pint of orange-juice, the juice of one lemon and one-half package of orange coloring-powder. Mold and serve with whipped cream.
A straightforward wine-glass-clear gelatine mold, but the measurements depend on a brand package that no longer exists. Everything turns on getting the gelatine-to-liquid ratio right for a fairly acidic mix.
- How much gelatineHousehold granulated gelatine of this period was sold in boxes of roughly ½ to 1 ounce, and the Larkin package size is not recorded, so "one-half package" cannot be converted with confidence. For a mix of this size, use about ½ ounce (two modern envelopes, about 14 g) if you want a jelly that unmolds cleanly.
- Total liquidAdd it up: ½ cup cold water, 1 cup boiling water, 1 pint orange juice and the juice of a lemon comes to about 3¾ cups. That is a quart mold, serving six to eight.
- Acid weakens the setA pint of orange juice plus a lemon is a lot of acid, which cuts gelatine's setting strength. Err on the generous side with the gelatine and give it a full 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator, overnight for a tall or fluted mold.
- Do not boil the gelatine"Freshly boiled water" means water taken off the heat, poured over the bloomed gelatine and stirred until dissolved. Holding gelatine at a boil degrades it, and boiling the orange juice would flatten the fresh flavor the recipe is built on.
- Orange coloring-powderA packet of dye sold to make fruit jellies look more emphatically orange; the recipe does not name its maker, though a companion pantry product is likely in a Larkin booklet. Omit it. Fresh juice and a few strips of zest steeped in the hot water give better color and taste.
- Strain the juicePulp and membrane cloud the jelly and float to the top as a scum. Strain the orange and lemon juice through a fine sieve before adding it.
- UnmoldingRinse the mold with cold water before filling rather than oiling it. To turn out, dip the mold in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto a chilled plate.
- ServingThe whipped cream should be barely sweetened, if at all — the jelly already carries a cup of sugar.
Gelatine desserts like this one mark the moment when a laborious dish became a convenience. Clear fruit jellies had long been a showpiece of the ambitious table, but they required calves' feet or isinglass boiled down for hours and clarified with egg white; granulated gelatine sold by the package, which spread through American kitchens in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, reduced the work to soaking and stirring. The brand name in the text — Larkin Gelatine — points to the Larkin Company of Buffalo, the soap manufacturer that built an enormous mail-order grocery and household-goods business on club buying and premiums, and that circulated cookery booklets promoting its own pantry line. Recipes calling for a manufacturer's "one-half package" rather than an ounce measure are a reminder of how thoroughly the branded package had replaced the scale in the home cook's reckoning, and of how quickly that convenience becomes unreadable once the package leaves the market.