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Lemon Sponge
Soak ½ package of gelatine in 1 cupful of cold water till soft. Boil 1 pint of water and 1 pint of sugar for two minutes, add gelatine, stir till dissolved, add juice of three lemons and strain.
When cold and beginning to thicken add the whites of 4 eggs, stand in a pan of ice water and whip without stopping until it is a white spongy mass all through. Turn into a wetted mold and set away until firm.
This is a whipped gelatine dessert of a type once found in every American cookbook, but it depends on raw egg white that is never heated at any point. The notes below explain the problem and decode the period measurements.
- The raw whites are the failureThe syrup is boiled, but it is deliberately cooled until it begins to set before the four egg whites go in, and the finished sponge is only chilled in a mold. The whites never reach a temperature that would kill Salmonella, and whipping them into a cold gel spreads any contamination evenly through the whole dish.
- Who is most at riskUncooked egg white in a chilled, sugary dessert is exactly the combination public health agencies warn against for children, older adults, pregnant women and anyone immune-compromised. A sponge like this sits in a mold for some hours before it is served.
- Chilling is not a controlSetting the mold "away until firm" was the only safety step the original author had. Refrigeration slows bacterial growth but does not eliminate it, and period ice-cooled storage would generally have run warmer than a modern refrigerator. If you want a lemon sponge, use a current recipe built on pasteurised whites or a cooked meringue.
- Half a package of gelatineA period "package" or box of gelatine was commonly reckoned at about an ounce, which would make half a package roughly two envelopes by today's measure — somewhat more than a modern recipe would use for the same volume of liquid, though a sponge that must hold a molded shape needs a firmer set. The 1 pint of water plus 1 cupful of soaking water gives three cups of liquid to set.
- A pint of sugarSugar was measured by volume, not weight; a pint here is two cups, about 14 oz. Boiled with a pint of water for two minutes, it is a thin syrup, not a candy stage, so no thermometer was intended.
- Juice of three lemonsThree lemons would have yielded roughly 6 to 7 tablespoons of juice, in the same general range as three ordinary lemons today.
- YieldThree cups of liquid, whipped with air, makes a sizeable molded dessert; the recipe gives no yield or serving count.
Whipped gelatine desserts — variously called sponges, snows and whips — spread through American cookbooks after granulated gelatine became a cheap packaged grocery item around the 1890s, replacing the slower business of boiling down calves' feet or isinglass. A package of gelatine, some sugar, a few lemons and four egg whites produced an impressive molded dessert cheaply, stretching a little flavouring across several servings by inflating it with air. Whipping over ice water until the mixture holds is the method associated with the domestic-science cooking schools of the period, where a fluffy, pale, molded sweet was considered both economical and refined. Uncooked egg white was routine in such dishes and is the single thing that has not survived modern food-safety practice.