Lemon Sponge
INGREDIENTS for quart mould.-2 oz. of isinglass or gelatine, 1 3/4 pint of water, lb. of pounded sugar, the juice of 3 lemons, the rind of 1, the whites of 3 eggs. AVERAGE COST, 2s.
Dissolve the isinglass in the water, strain it into a saucepan and add the sugar, LEMONS, TO PICKLE. lemon-rind and juice. Boil the whole from 10 to 15 minutes; strain it again and let it stand till it is cold and begins to stiffen.
Beat the whites of the eggs, put them to it and whisk the mixture till it is quite previously wetted and let it remain until white put it into a mould which has been perfectly set; then turn it out and garnish it according to taste.
TIME.-10 to 15 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A cold gelatine whip of the kind that filled Victorian moulds, and one that cannot be made safely from this text as it stands.
- Raw egg white is never heatedThe lemon-and-gelatine syrup is boiled, but it is then cooled until it begins to stiffen before the whites go in. Nothing after that point brings the eggs anywhere near a temperature that would kill Salmonella, and the finished sponge is served cold and unset by heat.
- A long, warm whisking stageAn unheated whisking stage -- the whites are whisked into a syrup that has already cooled and begun to stiffen, so the eggs spend the whole process at or below room temperature. Chilling the mould afterwards slows bacterial growth but does not undo it.
- Who it reachesCold moulded sweets of this type were part of the same repertoire as invalid and nursery cookery, and raw egg carries the greatest consequence for children, pregnant women, the elderly and the immunocompromised. If you want a lemon sponge, use a current recipe built for pasteurised whites or a cooked meringue base.
- Isinglass is not gelatineIsinglass, made from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, was the older setting agent and does not behave identically to modern leaf or powdered gelatine, though this recipe offers the two as equivalents. Setting strengths differ, so quantities cannot simply be carried across.
- The sugar quantity is unusableThe pounded sugar is given as a bare "lb." with no fraction, so the sweetness of the original cannot be reconstructed from this line.
- Average costThe 2s. is Mrs Beeton's mid-nineteenth-century retail estimate, quoted so a household could price a dinner in advance. It carries no meaning as a modern figure.
Lemon sponge belongs to a whole family of Victorian "sponges" and "creams" that were really cold gelatine foams: a clear jelly, whipped with egg white until opaque and much increased in bulk, then turned out of a shaped mould and garnished. Isinglass, prepared from fish swim bladders, was a standard clarifying and setting agent of the period and was sold by the ounce at considerable expense, and commercial powdered gelatine displaced it as it became cheaper in the later nineteenth century. The instruction to wet the mould before filling it is one piece of technique here that has not changed: a film of water helps the set jelly release without tearing.