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Claret Jelly for Sweet Sandwiches
Substitute claret for the orange juice and prepare as above. Do not omit the lemon juice. Fruit or Claret Jelly Sandwiches with Nuts.
Slice blanched English walnuts and pecan nuts or almonds very thin, and stir into whipped cream.
Stamp out shapes from the jelly. Spread one piece with the cream and nuts and cover with a second piece of jelly.
This is a variation entry: it assumes the orange jelly recipe printed just above it, then turns the set jelly into the bread of a sandwich. Everything depends on making the jelly firm enough to cut and lift.
- ClaretIn this period claret meant red Bordeaux, or any dry red wine of that style. Use a dry, unoaked red; sweet or heavily tannic wines throw the sugar balance and turn the jelly bitter.
- Do not omit the lemon juiceThe lemon is not seasoning here so much as correction. Wine alone reads flat and slightly dull once it is sugared and set; the acid keeps the flavor legible against the cream.
- A stamping jelly, not a dessert jellyTo be cut into shapes and handled, the jelly needs to be set considerably firmer than a spoon dessert; something like two envelopes of granulated gelatin (about 4 1/2 teaspoons) to a pint of liquid, adjusted by trial, and poured into a shallow pan so the sheet is about half to three-quarters of an inch thick.
- Cutting the shapesChill until fully set, several hours or overnight, and stamp with a small cutter dipped in hot water between cuts. Lift each round with a thin spatula rather than fingers, which melt the edges.
- Blanched nutsBlanching here means loosening the skins in boiling water and slipping them off; almonds take to this readily, pecans and walnuts less so. Modern shelled nuts are usually sold ready to use, and skinned walnut halves may be simply sliced thin.
- The creamWhip to soft peaks only, and unsweetened or barely sweetened, since the jelly carries the sugar. Whipped cream against a wet gelatin surface tends to weep fairly quickly, so assemble shortly before serving and keep the plate cold.
- AlcoholNothing is cooked, so the wine's alcohol remains. Worth knowing if these are going onto a tea table with children at it.
- YieldA pint of jelly set half an inch deep gives roughly twenty to twenty-four small rounds, or ten to twelve finished sandwiches, which is about right for a tea or card party.
Sweet sandwiches were a feature of American afternoon tea and card-party entertaining around the turn of the twentieth century, and this book, Janet McKenzie Hill's Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties, belongs to that world of small, decorative, chafing-dish-and-tea-table cookery aimed at the middle-class hostess. The conceit of replacing bread with two stamped rounds of jelly is pure period showmanship, made easier by the granulated gelatin then coming onto the market in packets, which spared cooks the long business of boiling down calf's foot or isinglass. Claret, the English name for the red wines of Bordeaux, was a familiar household red in Anglo-American cookery and turns up in jellies, cups and sauces of the era.