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Jelly, Savoury (for Meat Pies)
INGREDIENTS for a large stock. -3 lbs. of shin of beef, 1 calf's-foot, 3 lbs. of knuckle of veal, poultry trimmings (if for game pies, any game trimmings), 2 onions stuck with cloves, 2 carrots, 4 shalots, a bunch of savoury herbs, 2 bay-leaves, when liked; 2. blades of mace and a little spice; 2 slices of lean ham; rather more than 2 quarts of water. AVERAGE COST, 5s.
Cut up the meat and put it into a stewpan with all the ingredients except the water; set it over a slow fire to draw down, and, when the gravy ceases to flow from the meat, pour in the water. Let it boil up, then carefully take away all scum from the top. Cover the stewpan closely, and let the stock simmer very gently for 4 hours: if rapidly boiled, the jelly will not be clear. When done, strain it through a fine sieve or flannel bag; and when cold, the jelly should be quite transparent. If this is not the case, clarify it with the white of eggs.
TIME.-4 hours.
JELLY, STOCK FOR.
Jelly, To make the Stock for, and to Clarify it. - INGREDIENTS.-2 calf" s feet, 6 pints of water. AVERAGE COST, 18.6d.
The stock for jellies should always be made the day before it is required for use, as the liquor has time to cool, and the fat can be so much more easily and effectually removed when thoroughly set. Procure 2 nice calf's feet; scald them, to take off the hair; slit them in two, remove the fat from between the claws, and wash the feet well in warm water; put them into a stewpan, with the above proportion of cold water, bring it gradually to boil, then strain it through a sieve into a basin, and put it in a cool place to set. As the liquor is strained, measure it, to ascertain the proportion for the jelly, allowing something for the sediment and fat at the top. To clarify it, carefully remove all the fat from the top, pour over a little warm water, to wash away any that may remain, and wipe the jelly with a clean cloth; remove the jelly from the sediment, put it into a saucepan, and, supposing the quantity to be a quart, add to it 6 oz. of loaf sugar, the shells and well-whisked whites of 5 eggs, and stir these ingredients together cold; set the saucepan on the fire, but do not stir the jelly after it begins to warm. Let it boil about 10 minutes after it rises to a head, then throw in a teacupful of cold water; let it boil 5 minutes longer, then take the saucepan off, cover it closely and let it remain 1/2 hour near the fire. Dip the jelly-bag into hot water, wring it out quite dry and fasten it on to a stand or the back of a chair, which must be placed near the fire, to prevent the jelly from setting before it has run through the bag. Place a basin underneath to receive the jelly; then pour it into the bag, and should it not be clear the first time, run it through the bag again. This stock is the foundation of all really good jellies, which may be varied in innumerable ways, by colouring and flavouring with liqueurs, and by moulding it with fresh and preserved fruits. To insure the jelly being firm when turned out, 1/2 oz. of isinglass clarified might be added to the above proportion of stock.
Substitutes for calf's feet are now frequently used in making jellies, which lessen the expense and trouble in preparing this favourite dish; isinglass and gelatine being two of the principle materials employed; but although they may look as nicely as jellies made from good stock, they are never so delicate, and unless the best isinglass or gelatine is used, having very often an unpleasant flavour, somewhat JOHN DORY. resembling glue, particularly when made with gelatine.
TIME.-About 6 hours to boil the feet for the stock; to clarify it hour to boil, 1/2 hour to stand in the saucepan covered.
SEASONABLE from March to October, but may be had all the year.
Two related preparations sit here: a rich savoury stock stiff enough to set inside a raised pie, and the plain calf's-foot stock that underpinned every Victorian moulded jelly, sweet or otherwise. Both stand or fall on one thing — the liquid must never be allowed to boil once the meat is in it.
- Bare simmer, not a boilThe recipe brings it up to the boil only to skim, then holds it at a very gentle simmer for the full four hours; it warns that rapid boiling means the jelly will not be clear, since agitation drives fat and fine solids into suspension. In modern terms that gentle simmer is around 180-190F, where a bubble breaks the surface only every few seconds. Egg-white clarification (which the recipe offers) will recover a cloudy stock only up to a point.
- "Draw down" the meat firstSetting the cut meat and vegetables over low heat dry, until they release their juices and those juices stop flowing and begin to catch, is a sweating stage that builds colour and depth. Watch it closely on a modern gas or induction hob, which delivers far more direct heat than a range top; the residue should brown, not blacken.
- Quantities and costRather more than 2 quarts of water is imperial measure, about 2.4 litres. The shillings-and-pence costs are period figures and carry no useful meaning now. Six pints imperial for the calf's feet is roughly 3.4 litres.
- Calf's feet and their substitutesTwo calf's feet were expected to give a firm, sliceable set on their own, with the recipe adding isinglass only as insurance. A butcher will order them, but pig's trotters give a comparable set with a slightly heavier flavour. The final paragraph's complaint about gelatine reflects nineteenth-century products; modern leaf and powdered gelatine are clean-tasting and behave predictably.
- Savoury stock will need helpSavoury stock may need help -- shin of beef, knuckle of veal and the calf's foot together should set, but the strength varies with reduction. Chill a spoonful on a saucer to test the set before committing it to a pie, and bloom in extra gelatine if it only thickens rather than firms.
- Shalots, mace and loaf sugarShalots are shallots. A blade of mace is one piece of the lacy aril from around a nutmeg; ground mace can stand in, though equivalences vary, so start with about a quarter teaspoon for the two blades and taste. Loaf sugar was refined white sugar broken from a cone -- ordinary granulated is the equivalent.
- The egg-white raftShells and whites are stirred in while everything is stone cold, then left strictly alone. Once the raft rises to a head and the coagulated proteins have trapped the cloudiness, stirring breaks it and you start again. The cupful of cold water simply checks the boil and firms the raft before straining.
- StrainingA jelly bag wetted with hot water and wrung dry stops the first run being absorbed and chilling; a double layer of scalded muslin in a sieve does the same job. Let it drip without squeezing — pressure forces sediment through and the second run will be cloudy.
- IsinglassA fish-swim-bladder gelatine, still sold for brewing but no longer a general kitchen item. The half-ounce suggested as insurance can be replaced with powdered gelatine, but setting strengths differ; add a little at a time and test the set on a cold saucer.
- Timing and yieldTiming -- allow a day: the stock is made, chilled overnight so the fat sets hard for lifting off, then clarified. Measure the strained liquor as the recipe directs and scale the sugar and egg whites to it; the quart in the text is only an example proportion.
Calf's-foot jelly was one of the workhorses of the Victorian kitchen and the Victorian sickroom alike, valued as much for its supposed restorative virtue for invalids as for the glittering moulded jellies that finished a dinner. The savoury version — what a French kitchen would call aspic — was structural rather than decorative: poured hot into the vent of a raised pork or game pie after baking, it filled the gap left as the meat shrank and sealed the contents from air, which is why the entry specifies matching the trimmings to the pie. The closing grumble about gelatine and isinglass gestures at a real shift in progress, though it places the passage only loosely. Commercial sheet gelatine became cheap and widely available over the course of the later nineteenth century — a general trend rather than a datable event — and within a generation of this book the household task of boiling feet for six hours had largely disappeared, taking with it the distinction between a jelly made from stock and one made from a packet.