Orange Jelly
Grate the rinds of two Seville and two China oranges, and two lemons. Squeeze the juice of six oranges and three lemons. Add one and a quarter pounds of loaf sugar and one-quarter of a pint of water, and boil till it jellies. Have ready a quart of isinglass jelly made quite stiff. Put it to the syrup and let it boil up once. Then strain it and put it in a mould.--Mrs. V.P.M.
The set here comes entirely from the isinglass, not the sugar syrup, so the two components must be judged separately: cook the citrus syrup for flavor and concentration, and rely on the gelatin for structure.
- Isinglass, and what to use insteadIsinglass is clarified collagen from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, sold in sheets or shreds and soaked, then dissolved, to make a stock jelly. Powdered or leaf gelatin replaces it directly; a quart of jelly "quite stiff" enough to unmould means roughly 1 to 1 1/4 oz of powdered gelatin (four to five 1/4-oz envelopes) bloomed and dissolved in a quart of water.
- Seville and China orangesSeville oranges are the bitter marmalade oranges, in season roughly January through February and usually sold at Latin or Middle Eastern grocers; China orange is the period name for the ordinary sweet orange. If no Seville is available, use sweet oranges and add the grated zest of a second lemon plus a spoonful of lemon juice to restore the sharpness.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined white sugar broken from a cone, prized because it was clean and free of molasses. Granulated sugar is the equivalent; 1 1/4 lb is about 2 3/4 cups.
- A quarter of a pintIn an American book of this period a pint is 16 fl oz, so a quarter pint is 1/2 cup of water.
- "Boil till it jellies"Take the syrup to about 220-222F, the point where a drop cooled on a cold plate wrinkles slightly, then stop. Note that most of the liquid here is the citrus juice rather than the quarter pint of water, so it will need real reduction. Pushed further it begins to caramelize and the fresh citrus flavor is lost.
- Keep the boiling briefProlonged boiling breaks gelatin down and softens the final set. "Let it boil up once" is literal: bring the combined syrup and jelly just to a boil, then take it off.
- StrainingGrated zest and any pulp must come out or the jelly will be cloudy and specked. Strain hot through a scalded jelly bag or several layers of damp cheesecloth and do not squeeze it; let it drip.
- Yield and settingPerhaps 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 quarts depending on how far the syrup is reduced, serving eight to ten. Rinse the mould with cold water before filling, chill at least six hours or overnight, and dip the mould briefly in warm water to turn it out.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1879, drew on contributions from some 250 Virginia housewives, and many entries are signed with initials rather than full names -- Mrs. V.P.M. is one of these. Moulded fruit jellies of this kind were showpiece desserts through the nineteenth century, and their cost lay less in the fruit than in the setting agent: isinglass was imported, expensive, and laborious to prepare, and commercial powdered gelatin displaced it in American kitchens largely in the decades after this book appeared. The recipe also records a distinction now largely lost in English -- between the bitter Seville orange, grown for marmalade and flavoring, and the sweet "China" orange eaten out of hand.