Lemon Jelly
Soak I package of gelatine in 1 pint of cold water until it is very soft. Boil together 1 quart of water, 1 1/2 pints of sugar and the pared yellow rind of I lemon, for three minutes. Pour over the soaked gelatine and stir until it is dissolved.
Add the juice of 3 or 4 lemons and strain into molds which have been dipped in cold water.
Stand on ice or in a cold place until firm.
Orange juice or cider may be substituted for the lemon juice, thus giving orange or cider jelly.
A straightforward molded gelatin dessert from the era when packaged granulated gelatine had just replaced hours of boiling calves' feet. Two of the quantities need interpreting before you start.
- "1 package of gelatine"Period boxes are generally reckoned at about 1 ounce of granulated gelatine, roughly four of today's 1/4-ounce envelopes, or about 3 tablespoons. That gives a firm set for the 6 cups of liquid here; a single modern envelope will not set it.
- The sugar is ambiguousThe text reads "1/2 pints of sugar," which is a typesetting casualty. It is most likely 1 1/2 pints, or 3 cups, which matches the sweetness of other jellies of the period; 1/2 pint (1 cup) would give a tart, lightly sweetened jelly. Start at 2 cups and taste before molding if you want to split the difference.
- Total liquid1 pint for soaking plus 1 quart boiled equals 6 cups, before the lemon juice. Three to four lemons yield about 1/2 to 3/4 cup, so plan on roughly 6 3/4 cups finished jelly, enough for eight servings.
- Never boil the gelatineDo not boil the gelatine -- The hot syrup is poured over the softened gelatine off the heat and stirred until dissolved. Prolonged boiling once the gelatine is in can weaken the set.
- Pare, do not zest"Pared yellow rind" means the colored peel taken off in strips with a vegetable peeler, leaving the white pith behind. Pith turns the jelly bitter and cloudy, and strips are easier to strain out than grated zest.
- Strain for clarityStrain through a fine sieve lined with damp cheesecloth. Molded jellies were judged on transparency, and lemon pulp and stray rind will cloud the finished shape.
- Wetting the moldsDipping the molds in cold water rather than oiling them helps the jelly release cleanly. To unmold, dip the outside in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto a wet plate, which lets you slide the jelly into position.
- "Stand on ice"Setting the mold on ice, in the icebox, or in any cold place, as the recipe itself allows. Four to six hours in the refrigerator should set it; overnight is safer for a tall or fluted mold.
- The cider variantCider here most likely means sweet, unfermented apple cider, standing in for the lemon juice at the end. Since it replaces only the 1/2 to 3/4 cup of juice, any sugar adjustment will be slight.
Molded jellies were a fixture of nineteenth-century dessert tables, but until commercial gelatine became cheap they were laborious luxuries: the cook simmered calves' feet or isinglass for hours, then clarified the result with egg white through a jelly bag. Granulated gelatine sold by the box changed that, and by the 1890s and 1900s a lemon jelly was within reach of any household with a mold and a cold larder, which is exactly why it turns up in a collection of low-cost recipes. The economy is real: water, sugar and a few lemons produce a dish that looks far more expensive than it is. The interchangeable finishes noted at the end, orange or cider, show that this book at least offered its base formula as a template rather than a fixed recipe.