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Jelly, Orange, Moulded with slices of Orange
INGREDIENTS for quart mould.-1 pint of orange jelly, 4 oranges, pint of clarified syrup. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 6d.
Boil 1/2 lb. of loaf sugar. with 1/2 pint of water until there is no scum left (which must be carefully removed as fast as it rises), and carefully peel the oranges; JELLY WITH ORANGES. divide them into thin slices without breaking the thin skin, and put these pieces of orange into the syrup, where let them remain for about 5 minutes; then take them out, and use the syrup for the jelly. When the oranges are well drained, and the jelly is nearly cold, pour a little of the latter into the bottom of the mould; then lay in a few pieces of orange; over these pour a little jelly, and when this is set, place another layer of orange, proceeding in this manner until the mould is full. Put it in ice, or in a cool place, and, before turning it out, wrap a cloth round the mould for a minute or two, which has been wrung out in boiling water.
TIME.-5 minutes to simmer the oranges.
SEASONABLE from November to May.
A layered set jelly that depends entirely on patience: each stratum of orange has to be locked in place before the next goes in. The recipe assumes you already have orange jelly made and a quart mould to hand.
- Imperial measuresBeeton's pint is the imperial 20 fl oz, about 570 ml, not the US 16 oz. A quart mould therefore holds roughly 1.1 litres. Note that the syrup is not poured into the mould on its own: after the segments are drained the recipe says to "use the syrup for the jelly", so it goes into the pint of jelly that fills the mould with the fruit.
- Loaf sugar and clarified syrupLoaf sugar was refined cane sugar broken from a cone; ordinary granulated sugar is its equivalent. "Clarified" simply means the scum skimmed off as it rises, which is why the recipe insists on removing it as fast as it appears — you want a syrup clear enough to leave the jelly transparent.
- The orange jelly itselfThis page assumes an orange jelly already made; Beeton's jelly recipes are variously set with isinglass, calf's-feet stock or bought gelatine, and modern leaf or powdered gelatine will stand in. Fresh orange juice will not stop gelatine setting; fresh pineapple, kiwi and papaya contain enzymes that will, so do not substitute them into the layers.
- "Thin slices without breaking the thin skin"This means segments lifted out whole in their membrane, not cut rounds. Modern practice is to supreme the fruit — cut away peel and pith, then free each segment from the membrane — which looks cleaner in the mould, though the naked segments are more fragile in syrup.
- Five minutes in syrupThe recipe gives no reason for the five minutes; the body says only to let the pieces remain in the syrup, while the TIME line calls it simmering. Firming the segments in syrup plausibly helps them hold up in the jelly. Keep the syrup no more than at a bare simmer; a hard boil collapses the segments.
- The hinge: set each layerPour jelly that is cool and just beginning to thicken, and let each layer set firm in the refrigerator before adding fruit and more jelly. Warm jelly poured onto a soft layer melts it and the oranges float or sink into a muddle. Expect 20 to 30 minutes per layer, and several hours in total.
- Chilling and unmoulding"Put it in ice, or in a cool place" means a refrigerator now. The hot cloth trick still works: wring a cloth out in boiling water and wrap the mould, which the recipe allows for a minute or two, then invert. Judge it by eye, as too long will slump the outer surface.
- Yield and servingA 1.1 litre mould serves six to eight. Turn it out onto a chilled flat dish rather than a shallow bowl, since a little syrup always weeps out as it stands.
- Cost and season1s. 6d. is the shilling-and-pence price of the period, of no use as a guide now. "Seasonable from November to May" reflects the Mediterranean and Spanish orange season reaching Britain in winter; oranges are available year-round today, though blood oranges and Sevilles still keep to those months.
Moulded jellies were a display food long before they were a children's dessert, and their prestige rested on labour and clarity: gelatin had to be extracted from calves' feet or bought as isinglass, then clarified with egg white until the set was glass-clear. Suspending fruit in visible layers, as here, showed off both the transparency of the jelly and the cook's control of setting temperature — a task that in a Victorian household with an ice-house or an ice merchant's delivery was genuinely difficult. By the time Mrs Beeton's household books were circulating in their many post-1861 editions, packaged leaf and powdered gelatin was making such work far easier, and moulded jellies spread from grand tables to ordinary middle-class dinners. The November-to-May window is a reminder that the recipe belongs to an era when imported citrus was a seasonal luxury of the British winter rather than a permanent fixture.