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French Gelatine (Whites and Shells of two Eggs)
The Whites and Shells of two Eggs. Ten White Peppercorns.
Put all these ingredients into a stewpan together, and whisk over the fire until it boils; then draw it to the side of the fire and let it stand for twenty to thirty minutes, strain it as usual through a clean cloth, scalded and put on a soupstand, and when it is set it is ready for use.* * For all these jellies I have given the Ingredients in two quantities, as the different kitchens require in the School, because the pupils seem to find so much trouble in reducing the quantities in proper proportions. This will, I hope, save trouble to our pupils and to my staff of teachers, and it will not interfere with the general public who use the book.
R2
This is the tail end of a clarifying recipe rather than a complete formula: the page preserves only the last two ingredients and the method. Read it as a technique for clearing a savoury jelly, and take the quantities of gelatine, stock and flavourings from elsewhere in the chapter.
- What is missingThe whites and shells of two eggs and ten white peppercorns are only the clarifying and seasoning additions; the base liquid and the gelatine itself do not appear in this fragment, and what they were cannot be recovered from what survives here.
- Why shells as well as whitesThe albumen coagulates and traps suspended particles, while the crushed shells give the coagulating raft something to build on and help scour the liquid as it rises. Crush the shells and rinse them of any membrane before use.
- The hinge: whisk until it boils, then stopConstant whisking keeps the egg dispersed so it collects impurities throughout the liquid. The moment it boils, stop whisking entirely and draw the pan aside, or the raft breaks up and clouds everything it has just cleared.
- The twenty to thirty minutesThis is a rest, not a simmer. The pan sits at the side of the range barely trembling while the raft firms; a rolling boil at this stage will shred it.
- Straining"Through a clean cloth, scalded" means a jelly bag or double muslin rinsed in boiling water to remove any soap or dust taint and to stop the jelly chilling and setting in the weave. Let it run through undisturbed and never squeeze the bag.
- SoupstandA soup stand is simply a tall stand or frame that holds the straining cloth above the receiving bowl. Any stockpot rack, upturned stool or tall sieve set over a basin does the same job.
- White peppercornsWhite rather than black is deliberate: the object is a perfectly transparent jelly, and black pepper leaves dark specks and a coarser flavour. Ten whole corns is a light seasoning, though the fragment gives no quantity of liquid to judge it against.
- Setting and usePour the strained jelly into a wetted mould or a shallow tray and chill until firm. As a savoury aspic it is used for coating cold meats and fish, lining moulds, or chopping into glittering dice as a garnish.
- The footnoteThe asterisked note explains that the author printed each jelly in two batch sizes for the school's kitchens. If you meet a recipe in this section listing two columns of quantities, they are alternative scales, not a two-stage method.
Clarifying with egg white and shell is a long-established trick of the professional kitchen, and by the late nineteenth century a brilliantly clear aspic was the mark of a well-run larder: it glazed cold salmon, set chaudfroid, lined moulds of galantine and was chopped for garnish. The label "French" here probably signals technique rather than nationality of the dish, since the elaborate cold buffet of high-class Victorian cookery was taught and largely named in the French manner. What is most telling on this page is the footnote. It is written not to a housewife but to pupils and to a staff of teachers, and it admits that students struggled to scale recipes up and down, so the author printed the quantities twice. Cookery-school books of the later nineteenth century often carry these traces of the classroom, and they are a reminder that much domestic cookery writing of the period grew out of institutional training rather than the home.