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Apple Jelly
1090. Put one pound and a half of apples, after being pared and cored, in a quart of water; boil them till the apples are in a pulp; put them into a hair sieve to drain, but do not rub through. Measure the juice, and to every pint put half an ounce of isinglass (or the extract of calves' feet) and the juice and peel of a small lemon, sugar to taste; boil altogether five or ten minutes. Pour it through a flannel bag, and stir it till nearly cold before it is put into a mould.
A Victorian moulded jelly rather than a preserve: apple infusion set with fish gelatine and sharpened with lemon. The whole thing hinges on not disturbing the pulp in the sieve, since any cloudiness will follow through to the mould.
- Do not press the pulpThe instruction "do not rub through" is the point of the recipe. Let the apples drain of their own weight, an hour or more, or the jelly turns opaque and gluey instead of clear.
- IsinglassIsinglass is gelatine from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, now sold mainly to brewers and picture restorers. Substitute ordinary gelatine: about 2 teaspoons (7 g) powder or three leaves per pint of juice gives a set firm enough to unmould. Half an ounce per pint looks generous beside that, though isinglass sets less strongly than modern powdered gelatine, so the original set may not have been as firm as the figure suggests.
- Extract of calves' feetThe alternative is homemade gelatine stock, made by long-boiling split calves' feet and clarifying the result. No supermarket sells it; commercial gelatine does the same job.
- Hair sieve and flannel bagA hair sieve is a fine-mesh strainer; line a modern one with muslin. For the second straining, a scalded jelly bag or a double layer of damp muslin over a bowl works, and again it should drip rather than be squeezed.
- ApplesUse a tart cooking variety that collapses readily, Bramley or similar. A pound and a half prepared to a quart of water gives a thin, pale infusion; the flavour comes largely from the lemon peel, so pare it in strips and keep the pith out.
- Sugar to tasteAround 4 to 6 oz per pint of juice suits most palates for a moulded jelly. Dissolve it before the gelatine goes in and taste warm, since sweetness reads lower when cold.
- The five to ten minutesThat is long enough to dissolve isinglass fully but a hard rolling boil weakens modern gelatine. Bring it just to a simmer, stir until no grains remain, then take it off.
- Stirring till nearly coldThis keeps the peel and any suspended matter evenly distributed rather than settling in a band. Stir gently in the pan to the syrupy stage, then pour into a rinsed mould and chill four to six hours.
- YieldRoughly a pint to a pint and a half of finished jelly, depending on how much liquid the pulp holds back, enough for a small mould serving four to six.