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Four Cloves (One inch of Cinnamon)
One inch of Cinnamon.
One wineglassful of Sherry.
Half a wineglassful of Brandy.
Chop each foot into four pieces, wash them well in cold water, and blanch them; put the feet in a stewpan with five pints of cold water. Let this boil gently for five hours, skimming it carefully; then strain it through a hair-sieve into a basin to set. When this jelly stock is quite cold, dip a clean cloth into hot water and wipe every particle of grease off the stock. Squeeze the juice of the lemons through a strainer into a stewpan, add the lemon-peel, the whites of the eggs, slightly whipped, the egg-shells crushed, the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Whisk these all together, add the jelly stock, and whisk well till it boils. As soon as it boils, put the lid on the stewpan and draw to the side of the fire for twenty minutes to form a crust. When the crust is formed, the jelly must be strained through a jelly-bag or clean cloth previously scalded. When strained, add the wine and brandy. Garnish a jelly-mould according to taste, pour in the jelly, and set.
Wine Jelly from French Gelatine.
The page is a fragment: the ingredient list has been cut off mid-way, so the number of calf's feet (traditionally two), the lemons (three or four), the sugar (about 1 lb) and the egg whites (three or four) have to be inferred from the method. Everything else is a standard Victorian clarified wine jelly, and the technique still works exactly as written.
- The hinge: do not disturb the crustOnce the egg-white and shell mixture boils and forms its raft, the jelly must be poured through the bag without stirring or squeezing. Any pressure on the crust pushes cloudy sediment through and the jelly turns dull; if the first run is not brilliant, pour it back through the same bag and let it filter again.
- WineglassfulIn British cookery books of this period a wineglass is about 2 fl oz, so a quarter cup of sherry and two tablespoons of brandy. It is a flavouring quantity, not a set-ruining one.
- PintsFive imperial pints is 100 imperial fl oz, or about 12 US cups. Expect it to reduce substantially over five hours; the stock should be strong enough to set firm when cold, and you can test a teaspoonful on a cold saucer.
- Calf's feetThese are the whole point of the recipe and are no longer stocked routinely; a butcher will usually order them, or split cow heel can be used. The line at the foot of the page points to a separate version made with 'French gelatine', the commercial sheet gelatine sold under that name.
- BlanchingCover the chopped feet with cold water, bring to a boil, drain and rinse. This removes the scum that would otherwise make clarification futile later.
- DegreasingThe hot-cloth wipe is not optional fussiness. Any fat left on the set stock will float as a film on the finished jelly and cloud it; skim the solid cap off first, then wipe the surface with a cloth wrung out in hot water.
- Wine after strainingThe sherry and brandy go in cold, after clarification, so the alcohol and aroma survive. Adding them earlier boils off both and can also cloud the set.
- Setting and yieldRinse the mould in cold water before filling; it will need four to six hours in the refrigerator, overnight for a large decorated mould. The finished quantity depends on how far the stock reduces over the five hours, so judge the mould size once the jelly is strained.
- UnmouldingDip the mould to the rim in warm — not hot — water for a few seconds, then invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into position.
Calf's-foot jelly is one of the oldest set sweets in the English kitchen and by the nineteenth century had two quite separate lives. It was a showpiece clanish clear as glass, moulded, garnished with fruit or set in layers — and it was also the standard food of the sickroom, sent to invalids and new mothers as something nourishing that could be swallowed without effort; it is often said to turn up in Victorian fiction arriving in a covered basket. Both lives depended on the same tedious labour: the gelatine had to be extracted from feet over five hours before any cook could think about flavour. The clarification with egg white and crushed shell, which traps suspended particles in a rising raft, is the same principle used to clear consommé. What made the labour optional was the arrival of commercially refined sheet gelatine, widely available by the end of the century, and within a generation the calf's foot had largely disappeared from domestic cookery.