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Apple-Rose-Geranium Jelly
This is just old-fashioned apple jelly delicately flavored with fresh cut rose-geranium leaves. And to make sure that the quaint little leaf will effectively top the mold when turned out, as well as flavor it, it's necessary to make two batches of apple jelly.
For the first batch, 1 cup of apple juice is sufficient to cover the geranium leaves in the bottom of 6 jelly glasses and hold them in place, 1 in the bottom of each glass, pressed flat. Make your apple jelly by any good recipe and cover each leaf with it, using a tablespoon, and dividing the 1 glass of jelly among the 6. As soon as this sets, make enough of the second batch to fill all glasses to the top, then let cool and cover with paraffin.
If the hot jelly is poured directly on the geranium leaf, without first setting it in place with a few tablespoonfuls of jelly, the leaf will swim to the surface and be an unsightly blob at the bottom when unmolded, instead of sitting pretty on top.
If a more pungent flavor of rose is desired put 3-4 leaves in the boiling juice and remove before adding the sugar.
An assembly method rather than a full recipe: the apple jelly itself is left to whatever recipe you already use, and the instructions here govern how the leaf is anchored so it sits on top when the jelly is turned out.
- The hingeThe first thin layer must be fully set before the rest goes in. Pour hot jelly onto a loose leaf and it floats; a few tablespoonfuls of jelly per glass, left until set, pins it flat against the glass bottom.
- What rose geranium isPelargonium graveolens and its scented relatives, not the bedding geraniums sold for window boxes. Use leaves from a plant you know has not been sprayed with anything for ornamentals; nursery stock is often treated with systemic insecticide.
- The jelly you supplyFor a plain apple jelly, tart underripe apples cooked with their skins and cores give enough natural pectin. Roughly three-quarters of a cup of sugar to each cup of strained juice, boiled to the sheeting stage, about 220F at sea level.
- QuantitiesThe first batch is one cup of juice, divided among the six glasses. The second batch is unspecified: make enough to fill all six glasses to the top.
- Infusing the flavorThree or four leaves dropped into the boiling juice and lifted out before the sugar goes in gives a pronounced rose note, as the recipe directs.
- Paraffin is obsoleteWax caps were standard when this was written but are no longer considered a safe seal; they shrink and admit mold. Process the filled jars in a boiling-water bath with two-piece lids, or keep the jelly refrigerated and eat it within a few weeks.
- Turning it outThe whole point of the two layers is unmolding. A brief dip of the glass in warm water loosens the jelly enough to invert it onto a plate.
- YieldSix small glasses, each enough for a few servings alongside lamb, pork or hot biscuits.