Jaunemange
INGREDIENTS for quart moulds.-1 oz. ofisinglass or gelatine, 1 pint of water, 1/2 pint of white wine, the rind and juice of 1 large lemon, sugar to taste, the yolks of 4 eggs. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 6d.
Put the isinglass, water and lemon-rind into a saucepan and boil gently until the former is dissolved, then add the strained lemon-juice, the wine and sufficient white sugar to sweeten the whole nicely. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes, straining the mixture into a jug, and add the yolks of the eggs, which should be well beaten; place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water; keep stirring the mixture one way until it thickens, but do not allow it to boil; then take it off the fire and keep stirring until nearly cold. Pour it into a mould, omitting the sediment at the bottom of the jug, and let it remain until quite firm.
TIME.- hour to boil the isinglass and water; about 10 minutes to stir the mixture in the jug.
SEASONABLE at any time.
JELLIES, BOTTLED. certain strength of the raw products used, chiefly membranes of other fish, simply scraped and washed, rolled and cut up, led to the invention of "Swinborne's Patent Refined Isinglass," which differs from all others, being a cooked article, of uniform strength and purity, tasteless and entirely free from smell. It is largely taken by invalids, is used in infants' food, and is most nutritious in every form of jelly, creams, &c. No article of commerce requires more careful selection of material to insure a wholesome product than gelatine. Held at one time in high estimation as a food, it has latterly been considered of little value because in itself it does not sustain life.
Subjected to this test, nearly every useful delicacy would have to be condemned also.
Abroad, Liebig pronounced against it, but the gelatine he condemned was chiefly of foreign manufacture and prepared from bones by the use of acids, &c. Our own great chemist, Professor Brande, F.R.S., was careful to draw the distinction between good and bad, and deeming inferior productions unwholesome, he confined his testimony to the merits and nutritious qualities of "Swinborne's Calves' Feet Gelatine," the manufacture of which he thoroughly inspected and approved of.
A moulded wine custard set with gelatine — essentially a lemon syllabub jelly, and the yellow counterpart to blancmange. Two things decide whether it works: the strength of the setting agent and keeping the egg mixture below boiling.
- Never let the custard boilOnce the yolks go in, the mixture must be held below simmering in the jug over hot water. Above roughly 185F the yolks curdle and the jelly sets cloudy and granular instead of smooth and clear.
- Isinglass to gelatineIsinglass is dried sturgeon swim bladder, sold in leaf or shred and needing long boiling to dissolve. Powdered gelatine is not a straight swap by weight: 1 oz (about 28 g, four 7 g envelopes) will set 1½ pints extremely stiff — firm enough to stand unmoulded on a Victorian sideboard. For a modern spoonable set, halve it.
- Modern gelatine needs no boilingThe extended boiling in the original is for the isinglass (the printed time is damaged and reads only "— hour"). Powdered or leaf gelatine should be bloomed in cold water and dissolved in warm liquid; prolonged boiling weakens its setting power.
- Watch the liquid levelExtended gentle boiling with the lemon rind will cook away a noticeable amount of the pint of water. Top back up to a pint before adding the wine, or the balance of flavour and set will drift.
- The wine"White wine" here is best read as something dry to off-dry. Sherry or Madeira appears in other jellies of this type and works, but reduce the added sugar.
- Quart moulds, pluralThe heading reads "for quart moulds"; the 1½ pints of liquid will not fill a full quart (2-pint) mould, and suits one 1½-pint mould or two smaller ones.
- UnmouldingRinse the mould with cold water before filling, chill at least four hours, then dip briefly in warm water and invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into place.
- The paragraph after the recipeEverything from "JELLIES, BOTTLED" onward is stray text — advertising copy for Swinborne's patent isinglass and gelatine that has bled in from a neighbouring entry. It is not part of the method.
The name is generally traced to French jaune manger, "yellow eating" — on the received account the egg-yolk twin of blanc manger, blancmange — and it turns up in English cookery books from the eighteenth century onward under spellings including jaumange, jaune mange and jaunemange. Its logic belongs to the age of the moulded table: a clear wine jelly enriched and coloured by yolks, stiff enough to be turned out whole and carried in as a set piece. The setting agent is the period's real story. Isinglass, made from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, was the fine-jelly standard before commercial gelatine took hold, and it was laborious and variable in strength; the digression printed after this recipe, defending gelatine against Liebig's dismissal of it as worthless food, catches the mid-Victorian argument about whether the stuff was nourishment or mere texture. Dishes like this were also routinely fed to invalids, which is why so many nineteenth-century jelly recipes appear in the same breath as sickroom cookery.