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Jelly Roll Cotelettes
Make a jelly roll and with the rolling-pin roll down one side rather flat so that the slices, when cut, will have the shape of the meat part of a nicely trimmed mutton chop; the cake represents the fat and the jelly the streaks of lean. To make the imitation better, ice the chops over with transparent glaze or water icing. When dry, build them in cake basket or dish in pyramid form.
This is a finishing and presentation instruction rather than a full formula: it assumes you already have a jelly roll on the bench and tells you how to make it look like a plate of lamb chops. Everything hinges on shaping the roll before it sets.
- The hinge: shape it warmA sponge roll is only pliable while it is still warm from the oven and freshly rolled. Flatten one side with the pin within a few minutes of rolling; once the cake has cooled and the jelly has set, pressing it will crack the sponge and squeeze filling out the ends.
- "Cotelettes"French for cutlets or chops. The book is describing a trompe-l'oeil piece: as the recipe puts it, the cake stands for the fat and the jelly for the streaks of lean.
- The jelly roll itselfA thin sheet sponge, turned out onto sugared paper, spread with jelly and rolled while warm. The book does not specify the sponge. A stiff jelly such as currant or apple will hold better under the pin than a loose jam, which will run.
- Transparent glazeProbably a boiled and strained fruit glaze (apricot or currant) brushed on hot so it dries clear, though period books also use the term for a clear sugar glaze. A modern apricot glaze, or sieved apricot jam let down with a little water, does much the same job.
- Water icingConfectioners' sugar slaked with just enough water (or water and a little lemon juice) to brush on thinly. It should veil the cut surface without hiding the spiral, and must be left until dry, as the recipe directs, before the pieces are stacked.
- SlicingA long thin blade wiped between cuts gives clean spirals; a serrated knife drags the jelly. Slices of about half an inch hold their shape when built up. Chilling the roll briefly before cutting helps, though the glazing should be done after the surface has come back to room temperature so the icing does not weep.
- The pyramidPyramid arrangements of this kind were a recurring feature of Victorian confectionery display. Build from a broad ring and work in, and expect to lose the arrangement once anyone takes the first piece.
- YieldOne sheet-pan roll gives enough slices for a small pyramid.
Pastry cookery of the late nineteenth century delighted in food that impersonated other food, and the mutton chop was one of its favourite jokes: confectioners moulded ice cream into cutlets with paper frills, and here turned a jelly roll into a butcher's tray. The rolled sponge itself seems to have been well established by around the 1870s under a shifting set of names -- jelly roll in America, Swiss roll in Britain, roulade in the French trade -- and appears as a workhorse item that a shop could dress up a dozen ways. The instruction to build the finished slices "in cake basket or dish in pyramid form" is a reminder of settings where the height and glitter of a display mattered as much as the eating.