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Calves' Foot Jelly
One quart nice jelly stock, one pint wine, half a pound white sugar, whites of four eggs beaten up, three spoonfuls lemon juice. Boil all well and pass through a jelly-bag, kept hot before the fire. Try some at first, till it drips clear, and then pour out the whole. Peel the lemons as thin as possible and strain the jelly on the peelings. Should you wish to turn on the jelly in moulds, put one ounce isinglass to three pints of jelly.--Mrs. I. H.
A clarified wine jelly built on gelatin extracted from calves' feet. The whole thing turns on the clarification: the egg whites must be brought to a full boil and then left alone, or the jelly will never run clear.
- Jelly stockThis is the strained, chilled, degreased liquid from calves' feet simmered for hours in water and reduced; the recipe assumes the cook already has it to hand. Butchers rarely carry calves' feet now, and well-reduced veal or beef foot stock, or unflavoured powdered gelatin bloomed in water (about four 1/4-oz envelopes per quart), can stand in, though the set is worth testing on a cold saucer.
- Skim the fat firstAny fat left on the cold stock will cloud the finished jelly and no amount of straining will fix it. Lift the solid cap off the chilled stock and wipe the surface before you start.
- The egg-white raftBeat the whites in cold, and whisk only until the pan comes to the boil. Once the coagulated raft rises, stop stirring entirely and let it sit a few minutes off the heat; the raft traps the cloudiness. Breaking it up is the single most common way this recipe fails.
- Jelly-bagA double thickness of scalded muslin or a jelly bag in a stand, warmed so the gelatin does not set in the cloth. Let it drip under its own weight and do not squeeze; pressing forces sediment through. The recipe's instruction to try some at first, until it drips clear, and only then pour out the whole means running the jelly through until it comes clear.
- SpoonfulsThree spoonfuls of lemon juice means tablespoons, about 1 1/2 fl oz, roughly one large lemon. Peel the lemons before juicing, taking only the yellow zest, and pour the hot strained jelly over the peel to infuse as it cools.
- The wineA pint is a large proportion by modern taste; sherry, Madeira or a sweet white are the likely candidates for a jelly of this kind. Sweet sherry or Madeira suits the sugar level here; a dry wine will read thin and sharp.
- IsinglassIsinglass is gelatin from fish swim bladders, sold to nineteenth-century cooks as sheets or shreds and no longer a household item. Its setting strength varied enough that the ounce-to-three-pints ratio does not convert reliably; if you want an unmoulding jelly, add powdered gelatin to the strained liquid and test a spoonful on a cold saucer.
- Setting and yieldAbout three pints, enough for eight to ten small moulds or glasses. Allow at least six hours in the refrigerator, longer for anything to be turned out, and dip the mould briefly in warm water to release.
Calves' foot jelly was the standard invalid food and dessert of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and its labour is the point: extracting gelatin meant hours of simmering feet, chilling, skimming and clarifying, so a glass of clear amber wine jelly on the table advertised a well-run kitchen with servants in it. Cookbooks of the period regularly recommended it for the sick and convalescent alongside beef tea and gruel, in the belief that concentrated animal jelly was strengthening; the wine was thought to be part of the medicine. Commercial powdered gelatin reached American groceries in quantity in the later nineteenth century, offering a shortcut around the whole procedure, though recipes like this one -- signed only "Mrs. I. H.," in the manner of Housekeeping in Old Virginia's contributed collection -- kept the older method in circulation.