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Fancy Fruit Jelly
Make a lemon or orange jelly. In the bottom of a wetted mold spread a layer of fruit-berries, sliced bananas, green grapes, etc. Pour over just enough jelly to cover and stand on ice until firm. Add another layer of fruit and jelly, chill again; repeat until the materials are used.
Keep the reserved jelly in a warm place until the mold is filled.
A layered gelatine mold, written for a cook who already had a lemon or orange jelly recipe to hand. The whole thing hinges on temperature control: each layer must be cool enough not to melt the one beneath it, but still liquid.
- The jelly itself"A lemon or orange jelly" means a sweetened citrus gelatine, not preserve. The usual proportion is about 1 tablespoon (1 envelope, 7g) powdered gelatine per 2 cups liquid; for a mold that must be turned out, err on the firmer side. Figure 2 to 3 cups of jelly for a standard 1-quart mold, the fruit making up the rest.
- Keep the reserve lukewarm, not hot"A warm place" in the original means only warm enough to stay fluid, a little below the point at which set gelatine begins to melt. Hotter jelly will melt the set layer under it and the fruit will drift out of position.
- Fruits that will not setFresh pineapple, kiwi, papaya and fresh figs contain proteases that destroy gelatine. The berries, bananas and grapes named here are safe; if you want pineapple, use canned, which has been heat-treated.
- Layer thicknessPour only enough jelly to just cover each layer of fruit, as written. Thick layers take much longer to set and the seams show less cleanly when sliced.
- Chilling time"Stand on ice until firm" is 20 to 30 minutes per layer in a refrigerator, longer for deep molds. Each layer should be tacky but set before the next goes on, or the layers will bleed together.
- BananasSlice them last and dip in lemon juice. Sitting exposed while an earlier layer sets is exactly when they brown.
- Wetting and unmoldingRinsing the mold with cold water, as directed, helps release; an oiled mold works too but can cloud the surface. To turn out, dip the mold in warm water for 10 seconds, then invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldA 1-quart mold serves six to eight. Give it at least four hours total, or overnight, before unmolding.
Elaborate fruit-in-jelly molds were a Victorian and Edwardian showpiece that survived into the twentieth century largely because packaged gelatine made them cheap. Before commercial powders, clear jelly meant boiling calves' feet or buying costly isinglass, so a transparent mold signalled real expense; once granulated gelatine was sold in envelopes, the same effect cost pennies. A handful of berries and a banana, suspended in citrus jelly, produced a dessert that looked far more expensive than it was. The layering method here, chilling each stratum before adding the next, is the standard trick for keeping fruit visibly suspended rather than floating to the top or sinking, and it is still how it is done.