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Chocolate Jelly
Two sq. chocolate dissolved in 2 cups boiling water, pinch of salt; 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tbsp. butter (melted in hot water), 4 tbsp. cornstarch (4 tbsp. cocoa can be used instead of chocolate, mixed with dry ingredients). Mix dry ingredients, then stir boiling water slowly into dry ingredients and mix well. Stir while boiling until thick. Beat and add vanilla after taking from fire.
— Mrs. Roscoe Blunt
A cornstarch pudding stiff enough to unmould, which is why it is called a jelly rather than a cream. The proportions are sound; only the mixing method needs a modern hand.
- Squares of chocolateA square means one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so two squares is 2 oz. The stated cocoa substitution of 4 tbsp is roughly equivalent in flavour but carries far less cocoa butter, so the finished jelly will be slightly leaner.
- Lumping is the hingePouring boiling water onto dry cornstarch gelatinises the outside of each grain instantly and traps dry powder inside. Whisk constantly and add the water in a thin stream, or slake the starch, sugar and cocoa with a few tablespoons of cold water first and then add the rest boiling.
- Cook it outOnce it thickens, keep it at a bare boil for a full minute or two with steady stirring. Cornstarch stopped the moment it thickens tastes raw and chalky, and undercooked starch can also thin back down as it sits.
- The butterMelting the butter in the hot water helps it disperse evenly through the pudding. A tablespoon stirred straight into the hot pudding at the end does the same thing.
- VanillaNo quantity is given; 1 teaspoon suits this volume. Add it off the heat, as the original says, since the flavour is volatile.
- Setting and yieldFour tablespoons of cornstarch to two cups of liquid sets firmly enough to turn out of a mould. Rinse the mould in cold water before filling, chill at least three hours, and expect four modest servings.
- Skin on topPress plastic wrap or buttered paper directly onto the surface while it cools, or it will form a tough skin.
- ServingPuddings of this kind were sent to the table with plain cream or a thin custard sauce poured around them; unsweetened whipped cream works as well.
"Jelly" here has nothing to do with gelatine or fruit preserve. In the nineteenth century the word ordinarily meant a gelatine, isinglass or fruit preparation, and its use for a stiff starch pudding is a looser, secondary sense; by the time community cookbooks like this one were being compiled, cornstarch had become a cheap, reliable setting agent of the American household kitchen, and boxes were often said to carry recipes printed on the side. Blancmange, cornstarch pudding and chocolate jelly are all the same family of dish, differing mainly in flavouring and in how much starch went in. The choice offered between baking chocolate and cocoa is worth noting, though the recipe only offers a substitution and says nothing about which a cook would reach for first. Recipes signed with a contributor's married name, as this one is, are the signature form of the church and society cookbook, where each entry stood as a small public credit to the woman who supplied it.