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Jellied Walnuts
¼ box gelatine or 1/3 cup boiling water 1 tablespoon granulated ¾ cup sugar gelatine 1/2 cup Sherry wine ¼ cup cold water 1/2 cup orange juice 3 tablespoons lemon juice Make same as other jellies and cover bottom of shallow pan with one-half the mixture. When nearly firm, place over it, one inch apart, halves of English walnuts. Cover with remaining mixture. Chill, and cut in squares. Serve with whipped cream sweetened and flavored.
A wine jelly set in two layers with walnut halves suspended between them, then cut in squares. The recipe assumes you already know the book's basic jelly method, so most of the work is in reading between the lines.
- The gelatine measureA box of gelatine in this period held about an ounce, in four papers; a quarter box is one paper, roughly one tablespoon of granulated gelatine, or one standard 1/4-oz envelope today. The two options given are alternatives, not additions.
- "Make same as other jellies"Soak the gelatine in the cold water, dissolve it in the boiling water with the sugar, then add the sherry and the strained fruit juices. Strain the whole through cheesecloth before pouring or the jelly will not be clear.
- Set strengthOne tablespoon of gelatine to a scant pint of liquid gives a jelly firm enough to cut and lift in squares, but only just. If your pan is wider than about 8 inches the layer will be thin and fragile; keep the depth around 3/4 inch.
- The layering is the hingeThe first layer must be nearly firm but still tacky, or the walnuts sink and the second pour will not bond. Test with a fingertip: it should hold a dent and feel sticky. Chill the second layer at least four hours before cutting.
- Acid and alcoholSherry and citrus together make up more than half the liquid, and both acid and alcohol weaken a gelatine set. Do not increase the wine or the juice.
- CuttingDip the pan briefly in warm water, loosen the edge with a knife, and cut with a thin blade wiped between cuts. Space the walnut halves an inch apart so each square gets one and no cut lands on a nut.
- YieldAbout a pint of jelly, which cuts into roughly sixteen small squares -- six to eight servings with the sweetened whipped cream.
The book's cold-dessert chapter belongs to the moment when gelatine stopped being a laborious kitchen project and became a boxed grocery item. Earlier cooks boiled calves' feet or isinglass for hours and clarified the result with egg white; by the 1890s granulated and sheet gelatine were sold in boxes, often said to hold about an ounce divided into four papers, though sizes varied enough that period books commonly give tablespoon equivalents. Wine jellies -- sherry, Madeira, claret -- were the dignified end of the range, served in glasses or cut in squares, and were considered suitable for invalids as well as for company. The "English walnut" of the name is Juglans regia, distinguished in American books from the native black walnut, whose stronger flavor and stubborn shell made it the poorer choice for a clear jelly.