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One Lemon (Three ounces of Lump Sugar)
Three ounces of Lump Sugar.
One ounce of Gelatine.
One pound of Apples. Half a pint of Cream. Half a teaspoonful of Cochineal.
Three gills of cold Water.
Peel, core, and cut up the apple into small pieces, put them into a stewpan with the sugar, half a pint of water, the juice and grated rind of the lemon; when cooked to a pulp, rub through a hair-sieve, and stir in the gelatine melted in a gill of water. Colour part of the apple with the cochineal, and fill a border mould with alternate layers of the coloured and plain apple. When cold, turn out, and serve with half a pint of whipped cream in the centre.
Aspic Jelly from Calves' Feet.
Ingredients.
A Victorian moulded apple jelly, set in a ring and filled with whipped cream. The written ingredient list has lost its apples, so the proportions below are worked back from the sugar, gelatine and water.
- How much appleThe heading gives no weight, and none can be recovered from the text. Only that a sharp cooking apple is implied by the lemon and the small quantity of sugar; the quantity must be judged by eye against the size of the mould.
- GillsAn imperial gill is 5 fl oz. Three gills is 15 fl oz: one gill (5 fl oz) is reserved for melting the gelatine, and the remaining two gills are the half pint of water that goes into the pan with the apples.
- Lump sugarSimply refined cane sugar sold in cut lumps. Granulated sugar by weight is an exact substitute.
- One ounce of gelatineThat is about 28 g, a very firm set by modern standards for this volume of pulp. Present-day powdered or leaf gelatine is more reliably standardised than Victorian sheet; 15-20 g will give a mould that turns out cleanly without being rubbery. Soak it cold first, then dissolve over gentle heat and never boil it.
- CochinealHalf a teaspoonful refers to the old dilute tincture. Modern carmine or red food colour is far stronger; add it a drop at a time until the reserved portion is a clear pink against the pale apple.
- Hair sieveA fine-mesh sieve or a food mill with the finest plate. Pushing the cooked apple through breaks down lumps and core fibre and gives the smooth, even pulp the layering depends on.
- LayeringLet each layer cool and just begin to firm before adding the next, or the pink and plain will bleed together. Chilling the mould between layers speeds this considerably.
- Turning outA ring or border mould, lightly filmed with a flavourless oil or rinsed with cold water before filling. Dip briefly in hot water and invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into place.
- YieldThe recipe gives no mould size; a border of this kind would serve several. The half pint of whipped cream fills the centre and is best whipped only to soft peaks so it spoons out with the jelly.
Moulded fruit "borders" were a fixture of the late-Victorian and Edwardian cold-sweet repertoire, where the visual effect mattered as much as the flavour: a ring of set fruit, banded in two colours, with cream heaped in the well. Apples were cheap, pulped smoothly and took a colour cleanly, which may be part of why they appear so often in this part of a cookery book. The cochineal is genuine insect-derived carmine, then the standard red for confectionery and creams, and the packaged gelatine belongs to the gradual shift away from cooks boiling down calves' feet for their own setting agent -- a change this book reflects by printing both methods side by side.