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Cider Jelly
1/2 box gelatine or 1/2 cup cold water 2 tablespoons granulated gelatine 1 cup boiling water 2 cups cider
The book gives only the proportions — the method was assumed from the other gelatine jellies in the chapter. What follows fills in the vessels, the units and the working order.
- Read the "or" correctlyThe list offers two alternatives: half a box of sheet or shredded gelatine, or 2 tablespoons of granulated gelatine. The 1/2 cup cold water, 1 cup boiling water and 2 cups cider apply either way.
- A half boxA box of gelatine of the period is generally reckoned at about an ounce, so half a box is roughly 1/2 oz, in the neighbourhood of two modern 1/4-oz envelopes; the recipe itself treats that quantity as interchangeable with 2 tablespoons of granulated gelatine.
- The order of workSoften the gelatine in the cold water about five minutes, dissolve it completely in the boiling water, then stir in the cider. Adding cider to undissolved gelatine leaves gritty threads that will not come out later.
- Do not heat the ciderThe cider goes in cold, off the heat. Boiling it drives off the fresh apple aroma that is the whole point of the dish and can turn the jelly cloudy.
- Which ciderThis means sweet, unfermented cider — the New England autumn kind, not hard cider. Modern filtered apple juice works but is tamer; unfiltered cider gives better flavor and a hazier set, so strain it through cheesecloth if you want it clear.
- Sugar and lemonNo sweetening is listed. Taste the mixture before molding and add sugar to suit, dissolving it in the hot water; a spoonful of lemon juice sharpens supermarket juice considerably.
- Setting and unmoldingThree and a half cups of liquid to 1/2 oz gelatine sets firm enough to turn out of a mold. Chill at least four hours, or overnight. Dip the mold briefly in warm water to release.
- YieldAbout three and a half cups — six to eight small servings. Serve with sweetened whipped cream or a soft custard.
Cider jelly of this sort belongs to the moment when gelatine stopped being a kitchen project and became a package. Cooks of the early nineteenth century got their gelatine by simmering calves' feet for hours and clarifying the result; by the 1890s commercial gelatine came in boxes of sheets or shreds, and the newer granulated form was displacing them fast. The flavoring is pure New England: sweet cider from the fall pressing was cheap and abundant, and it turns up here as it does in cider sauces, cider pies and boiled cider apple dishes. Fannie Farmer's cold-dessert chapter is full of these clear molded jellies — wine, coffee, orange, lemon — a category of dessert that depended entirely on the new reliability of packaged gelatine and on the household ice supply to set it.