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Kumquat Jelly
1½ cups kumquat juice ½ cup sugar ¼ cup Sauterne 1½ tablespoons Orange Curaçoa 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 2 tablespoons cold water Few grains salt Wipe three-fourths box kumquats, cut in slices, add cold water to cover, bring slowly to boiling-point, and cook slowly one-half hour; then strain; there should be one and onehalf cups juice. Add sugar, wine, and curaçoa. Soak gelatine in cold water, and add to first mixture heated to boilingpoint; then add salt. Strain, turn into individual mould, and chill. Remove to serving dish, and garnish with halves of kumquats, cooked in syrup until soft, drained, and rolled in sugar.
A clear gelatine dessert built on kumquat decoction rather than fresh juice. The printed measurements have suffered in transcription, so read them with a cook's eye before starting.
- Quantities checkedThe Sauterne and sugar measures were checked against the printed page: the recipe calls for ¼ cup Sauterne and ½ cup sugar, as given here.
- Three-fourths box of kumquatsThe "box" is an unspecified retail measure of the period. Buy about 1 lb of fruit; simmered with water to cover for half an hour it should give roughly the cup and a half of liquid the recipe wants, plus fruit for the garnish.
- This is not juice in the modern senseKumquats are too small to press conveniently. The "juice" here is the strained cooking liquid, which carries the aromatic rind oil that makes the flavour. Do not force the pulp through the strainer or the jelly will cloud.
- Gelatine1 tablespoon of granulated gelatine is about 1¼ envelopes of modern powdered gelatine, which will set roughly 2 cups of liquid firmly enough to unmould. Bloom it in the cold water for five minutes, then stir into the hot liquid off the heat until fully dissolved.
- Do not boil after the wine goes inThe recipe says to heat the mixture to boiling before adding gelatine, but the Sauterne and curaçao are already in it by then. Bring it just to a bare simmer; a hard boil drives off the liqueur's aroma, which is most of the point.
- Sauterne"Sauterne" in American books of this period was often used loosely for a sweet white wine rather than Château-bottled Sauternes. Any sweet white — a modest Sauternes, a late-harvest Riesling, a Muscat — will serve.
- Chilling and unmouldingFour hours in individual moulds, or overnight. Dip the moulds briefly in warm water and invert, and work quickly once they are out of the refrigerator.
- The candied garnishHalve and seed the reserved kumquats, simmer in a light syrup until translucent, drain well on a rack until tacky rather than wet, then roll in granulated sugar. Wet fruit will dissolve the coating.
- YieldAbout 2 cups of jelly, which fills five or six small moulds.
Kumquats reached American markets from southern China by way of Florida and California groves over the course of the nineteenth century, and by the time this book was circulating they were a familiar winter novelty sold by the box, chiefly for preserves, marmalade and candying. This recipe belongs to a whole genus of turn-of-the-century "wine jellies" — clear gelatine desserts stiffened just enough to unmould, flavoured with a sweet wine and a spoonful of liqueur, and served in individual shapes as a light course after a heavy dinner. Curaçao, a bitter-orange liqueur generally traced to Dutch trade in the Caribbean, was the standard bottle for reinforcing citrus in such dishes. The technique is also a thrifty one: the fruit is simmered for its flavoured liquid, and the cooked halves are then candied for the garnish, so nothing is thrown away.