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Apricot and Wine Jelly
1 cup boiling water 1/2 box gelatine or 2 tablespoons granulated gelatine 1/2 cup cold water 1 cup apricot juice 1 cup wine 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juice Garnish individual moulds with halves of canned apricots, fill with mixture made same as for other jellies, and chill. Arrange on serving dish and garnish with whipped cream forced through a pastry bag and tube. ¼ box gelatine or Snow Pudding I 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 1/4 cup cold water Whites 3 eggs 1 cup boiling water 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup lemon juice Soak gelatine in cold water, dissolve in boiling water, add sugar and lemon juice, strain, and set aside in cool place; occasionally stir mixture, and when quite thick, beat with wire spoon or whisk until frothy; add whites of eggs beaten stiff, and continue beating until stiff enough to hold its shape. Mould, or pile by spoonfuls on glass dish; serve cold with Boiled Custard. A very attractive dish may be prepared by coloring half the mixture with fruit red.
A moulded wine jelly built on the standard method used throughout this chapter: soak the gelatine, dissolve it in boiling water, then add the cold liquids. The apricot halves go into the mould first so they sit on top when turned out.
- The gelatine measureThe recipe gives its own equivalence: half a box is 2 tablespoons of granulated gelatine, which puts a whole box at roughly an ounce. Two modern 1/4-oz envelopes come close enough, though they are a shade under 2 tablespoons.
- Method, since the book assumes itSoak the gelatine in the 1/2 cup cold water five minutes, dissolve it in the cup of boiling water, stir in the sugar until clear, then add the apricot juice, wine and lemon juice off the heat and strain.
- Set ratioTwo envelopes to roughly 3 1/2 cups of liquid gives a jelly firm enough to unmould but still tender. Alcohol and acid both weaken a set slightly, so do not stretch the liquid further.
- Apricot juiceThis means the syrup from canned apricots, which is heavily sweetened. Taste before adding the full cup of sugar; with modern canned fruit in syrup, half to two-thirds is usually enough.
- The wineA sweet white such as sherry, madeira or a moscatel suits it, though the book specifies nothing. Adding it off the heat keeps its aroma and its alcohol, which matters if you are serving children.
- Lining the mouldsSet the apricot halves cut side down in a spoonful of jelly and let that layer firm in the refrigerator before filling, or the fruit floats and the pattern is lost.
- ChillingFour hours in the refrigerator for individual moulds, longer for one large one. To turn out, dip the mould in warm water for a count of five and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldAbout 3 1/2 to 4 cups once the sugar is dissolved, which fills six to eight small moulds.
Moulded wine jellies were a standard of the cold-dessert chapter in American cookery. Before commercial gelatine, a clear jelly meant simmering calves' feet for hours, clarifying the stock with egg white and shell, and straining it through a flannel bag. Packaged granulated gelatine, sold by the box, reduced all of that to a short soak, and the book treats it as a matter of course — note that the instruction here is simply "made same as for other jellies," a formula the reader was expected to have learned a few pages earlier. The canned apricots point the same way: this is a dessert assembled from shelf goods, elegant on the table but requiring no orchard, no stockpot and no particular skill beyond patience with the mould.