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Apple Jelly, Clear (for Imme- diate Eating)
AVERAGE COST, 1s. 6d INGREDIENTS for 1 1/2 pint mould.-3 lbs. of apples, water, loaf sugar, isinglass, lemons. AVERAGE COST, 18. 6d.
Pare, core and cut the apples into quarters, and boil them, with the the lemon-peeland sufficient water to cover them, until tender; then strain off the apples, and run the juice through a jelly-bag; put the strained juice, with sugar in the proportion of 1/2 lb. to a pint, and isinglass or gelatine dissolved in boiling water in the proportion of 1/2 oz. to a pint, into a lined saucepan or preserving-pan; boil all together for about 1/2 hour, and put the jelly into moulds.
When this jelly is clear, and turned out well, it makes a pretty supper dish, with a little custard or whipped cream round it.
If required to be kept any length of time, rather a larger proportion of sugar must be used.
TIME.-About 1 hour to boil the apples; 1/2 hour the jelly.
SEASONABLE from August to March.
APPLE JELLY.
Apple Jelly, Thick, or Marmalade (for Entremets or Dessert Dishes). INGREDIENTS. - Apples, sugar, lemon-peel.
Peel, core, and boil the apples with only sufficient water to prevent them from burning; beat them to a pulp, and to every lb. of pulp allow lb. of lump sugar.
Dip the lumps into water; put these into a saucepan and boil till the syrup is thick and can be well skimmed; then then add this syrup to the apple pulp, with sufficient grated lemon-peel to flavour the jelly, and stir it over a quick fire for about 20 minutes, or till the apples cease to stick to the bottom of the pan. The jelly is then APPLE JELLY, STUCK WITH ALMONDS. done, and may be poured into moulds which have been previously dipped in water, when it will turn out nicely. A little custard may be poured round, or it may be stuck with blanched almonds.
TIME. From to hour to reduce the apples to a pulp; 20 minutes to boil after the sugar is added.
SEASONABLE from August to March.
Apple Pudding, Rich Baked. -INGREDIENTS.- lb. of apple pulp, 1/2 lb. of loaf sugar, 4 oz. of butter, the rind of 1 lemon, 4 eggs, puff-paste. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 4d.
Peel, core, and slice the apples, as for sauce, sufficient to make 1/2 lb. of pulp ; put them into a stewpan, with just sufficient water to prevent them from burning, and let them stew until reduced to a pulp.
Add the sifted sugar, the grated lemonrind and the eggs, well beaten. Beat these ingredients well together; then melt the butter, stir it to the other things, put a border of puff-paste round the dish, pour in the mixture, and bake for rather more than 1/2 hour. The butter should not be added until the pudding is ready for the oven.
TIME. to hour.
SEASONABLE from August to March.
A moulded apple jelly set with isinglass, meant to be eaten within a day or two rather than stored. The important adjustments are to the setting agent and to the length of the final boil.
- The hinge: don't boil the gelatineHalf an hour of hard boiling will damage the setting power of modern powdered or leaf gelatine. Boil the sweetened juice to concentrate it, then take it off the heat, let it stop bubbling, and stir in the softened gelatine to dissolve.
- Isinglass to gelatineIsinglass is dried sturgeon swim bladder and is no longer a kitchen staple. Half an ounce per pint of isinglass corresponds to roughly 1/4 oz (7 g) of modern powdered gelatine per pint, or about four leaves; more than that gives a rubbery mould rather than a quivering one.
- Sugar"Loaf sugar" is refined cane sugar, once sold in a solid cone and broken up; ordinary granulated is the direct substitute. The proportion given is 1/2 lb to each pint of strained juice, which is sweet by current taste; the recipe itself notes that a larger proportion of sugar is wanted if the jelly is to be kept.
- The jelly-bagA scalded jelly bag, or a colander lined with several layers of damp muslin, suspended over a bowl. Let it drip on its own for a few hours; squeezing forces pulp through and clouds the finished jelly, which defeats the whole point of the dish.
- Yield and mouldingThree pounds of apples gives roughly a pint and a half of jelly, filling one 1 1/2-pint mould and serving six as a supper sweet. Rinse the mould in cold water before filling and chill for at least four hours; dip briefly in hot water to turn out.
- ServingCustard or lightly whipped cream poured round the base, as directed. Pouring it round rather than over keeps the jelly's clarity visible, which is the reason for all the straining.
- KeepingThis is described as being for immediate eating for good reason — a gelatine-set jelly at this sugar level is a fresh dish, not a preserve. Keep it refrigerated and eat within two or three days.
Isinglass, a nearly pure collagen prepared from the swim bladders of sturgeon, was the Victorian kitchen's premium setting agent, valued because it gave a clearer set than the calf's-foot stock or bone gelatine used in cheaper households; it also had a second life in the brewery, where it was and still is used to fine beer. By the time Mrs Beeton's household books were being expanded and reissued, packaged gelatine was steadily displacing it, which is why so many entries of this vintage offer the two interchangeably. The seasonal note from August to March marks the English apple year — the picking season into the end of what a well-kept fruit loft would hold — and the distinction drawn here between a clear jelly for eating at once and a thicker, better-sugared one for keeping reflects a kitchen that treated sugar as the preservative it is.