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Jellied Brazilian Salad
1 tablespoon gelatine 1/4 cup cold water 1 cup boiling water 1/4 cup sugar 1/3 cup lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup celery 1/3 cup strawberries or red cherries 1 orange 4 Brazil nuts 3 ripe olives Soak gelatine in cold water, add boiling water and when dissolved add sugar, lemon juice and salt, strain and put a thin layer on the bottom of small molds. To remaining jelly add celery cut in fine pieces, strawberries, orange sections free from membrane and cut in pieces, nuts shredded and olives finely chopped.
A gelatin salad from the era when a household refrigerator was still a selling point. It comes together in minutes but stands or falls on how you handle the layers.
- The gelatineOne tablespoon of granulated gelatine is roughly one modern envelope (about 1/4 oz or 7 g, which sets about two cups of liquid), though a tablespoon is a little more than an envelope measures. The recipe's liquid comes to about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups plus solids, so the set should be firm enough to unmold.
- Soak, then dissolveThe cold-water soak is not optional: sprinkle the gelatine over the 1/4 cup cold water and leave it five minutes to swell before the boiling water goes in. Added dry to hot liquid it forms lumps that never dissolve.
- Layering is the hingeChill the thin bottom layer only until it is tacky and just set, not hard, before adding the fruit-and-nut mixture. Fully set jelly will not bond to the second layer and the salad splits when turned out.
- Keep the fruit suspendedLet the remaining jelly cool and thicken to raw egg-white consistency before folding in the solids, or the nuts sink and the orange floats. Stir once or twice as it sets in the molds if you want an even distribution.
- Ripe olives"Ripe olives" here means canned black olives of the mild, meaty American type, not brine-cured Greek or oil-cured olives. Modern substitutes are much saltier and three of them could easily overwhelm the small quantity of fruit.
- Brazil nutsShred them with a vegetable peeler along the flat side of the nut for thin curls. They are high in oil and go rancid quickly, so buy them fresh and taste one before it goes into the mold.
- BalanceA third of a cup of lemon juice against a quarter cup of sugar is sharply tart by current taste. Taste the strained jelly before it sets and add sugar if you want it closer to a modern fruit salad.
- Yield and finishingEnough for about four to six small individual molds. Chill until firm, then dip the molds briefly in warm water to release. The recipe text here stops before serving; a salad of this type was usually turned out onto lettuce, and mayonnaise or boiled dressing would suit it.