Calf's Feet Jelly
INGREDIENTS for 3 pints.-1 quart of calf's feet stock, 1/2 lb. of sugar, 1/2 pint of sherry, 1 glass of brandy, the shells and whites of 5 eggs, the rind and juice of 2 lemons, 1/2 oz. of isinglass.
Prepare the stock as directed in recipe for stock, taking care to leave the sediment, and to remove all the fat from the surface. Put it into a saucepan cold, with out clarifying it; add the remaining ingredients, and stir them well together before the saucepan is placed on the fire. Then simmer the mixture gently for 1/4 hour, but do not stir it after it begins to warm.
Throw in a teacupful of cold water, boil for another 5 minutes, and keep the saucepan covered by the side of the fire for about 1/2 hour, bu do not let it boil again.
In simmering, the head or scum may be carefully removed as it rises; but particular attention must be given to the jelly, that it be not stirred in the slightest degree after it is heated. The isinglass should be added when the jelly begins to boil; this assists to clear it, and makes it firmer for turning out. Wring out a jellybag in hot water; fasten it on to a stand, or the back of a chair; place it near the fire with a basin underneath it, and run the jelly through it. Should it not be perfectly clear the first time, repeat the process until the desired brilliancy is obtained. Soak the moulds in water, drain them for half a second, pour in the jelly, and put it in a cool place to set. If ice is at hand, surround the moulds with it, CALF'S HEAD. and the jelly will set sooner, and be firmer when turned out. In summer it is necessary to have ice in which to put the moulds, or the cook will be, very likely, disappointed, by her jellies being in too liquid a state to turn out properly, unless a great deal of isinglass is used. When wanted for table, dip the moulds in hot water for a minute, wipe the outside with a cloth, lay a dish on the top of the mould, turn it quickly over, and the jelly should slip out easily. It is sometimes served broken into square lumps, and piled high in glasses. Earthenware moulds are preferable to those of pewter or tin for red jellies, the colour and transparency of the composition being often spoiled by using the latter. To make this jelly more economically, raisin wine may be substituted for the sherry and brandy, and the stock made from cow-heels, instead of calf's feet.
TIME.-20 minutes to simmer the jelly, hour to remain covered.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. As lemon-juice, unless carefully strained, is liable to make the jelly muddy, see that it is clear before it is added to the other ingredients gredients. Omit the brandy when the flavour is objected to.
A clear wine jelly built on gelatine extracted from calf's feet, clarified with an egg-white raft. Almost all of the difficulty lies in the clarification, and the original is right about where it fails.
- The hinge: do not stir once it warmsThe egg whites and crushed shells coagulate into a raft that traps the sediment clouding the stock. Stir after the mixture is hot and you break the raft, disperse the solids, and no amount of straining will recover brilliance.
- "A teacupful of cold water"Read this as about 5 fl oz (150 ml). It knocks the boil back so the raft settles and firms rather than churning; the same trick is still used for consommé.
- "By the side of the fire"A place that holds the pan hot but below a simmer: the lowest setting on a gas ring, or a diffuser. The half hour of resting is what lets the raft settle and compact.
- IsinglassA collagen setting agent from sturgeon and other fish swim bladders, once sold in leaf and shred form and now hard to buy outside brewing suppliers. Strengths varied enormously between grades, so the 1/2 oz here cannot be converted to modern leaf gelatine with any honesty; test the stock's set instead.
- Test the stock firstThe recipe wants a quart of calf's-foot stock with a good set, diluted with half a pint of sherry and a glass of brandy and reinforced with isinglass. Chill a spoonful on a saucer before you commit: if it is barely jellied, the finished mould will slump however carefully you clarify.
- Calf's feet and cow heelBoth are butcher's-order items rather than supermarket stock, and the recipe's own economy note — cow heel for calf's feet, raisin wine for the sherry and brandy — still holds. Ask for them split.
- The jelly bagScalded flannel or three or four layers of muslin over a stand does the same job. Let it drip under its own weight; squeezing forces fines through and undoes the clarification.
- Moulds and metalThe warning about pewter and tin is about reactive metal dulling acidic, wine-red jellies. Glass, china or stainless steel are all safe now. Rinsing the mould with cold water before filling still helps it release.
- Setting and yieldThree imperial pints is about 1.7 litres, enough for ten to twelve at table. The ice bath is only there because there was no refrigerator; overnight in the fridge does the work now.
Before packet gelatine, anyone wanting a clear jelly had to make the gelatine themselves, and calf's feet were the standard source — long-boiled for their collagen, which sets firmly and tastes of very little once the fat and sediment are removed. That labour is why jelly signalled a well-run kitchen: the raft clarification here is the same technique used for consommé, and a jelly that turned out brilliant and stood up on the dish was evidence of a cook who could be trusted with set pieces. Isinglass, the fish-derived reinforcement, had a long parallel life as a clarifying agent in brewing and winemaking, where it is still used. Sweet wine jellies of this type were also standard invalid cookery, given to convalescents as something nourishing and easy to swallow. By the end of the nineteenth century commercially refined sheet and powdered gelatines had begun to displace both calf's feet and isinglass, and recipes like this one gradually became historical rather than practical.