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Jellied Prunes
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) gran- 2 tablespoons lemon-juice ulated gelatin
½ pound prunes
½ cup cold water
2 cups water
½ cup boiling water
Cream
¾ cup sugar
Wash the prunes, soak overnight in the water and cook until tender in the same water. Drain, reserving the liquid. Remove the stones and cut the prunes in quarters. Mix prune-juice and pulp and add boiling water, if necessary, to make two cups. Chill and add lemon-juice. Follow directions on package for making jelly. This may be served with whipped or plain cream.
A plain fruit jelly from the era when packaged granulated gelatin was still new enough that recipes deferred to the box. Two things need attention: the gelatin quantity and the state of modern prunes.
- The gelatin is the hingeThe recipe gives both a weight and a volume and they do not agree: one ounce by weight is four modern 1/4-ounce envelopes, while the 2 tablespoons in the parenthesis is nearer three. Since one envelope sets about two cups of liquid, either figure gives a bouncy, sliceable block rather than a spoonable jelly; one envelope, or at most two if you want it to unmold cleanly, is closer to what a modern cook wants.
- Prunes have changedThese are dried plums, and the moist-pack prunes sold today do not need an overnight soak. Simmer them in water 15-20 minutes until soft; if you buy them already pitted you can skip the pitting step.
- Liquid arithmeticThe 1/2 cup cold water blooms the gelatin. The recipe's own text sends the boiling water into the prune juice and pulp to bring it up to two cups, though package directions of the period used boiling water to dissolve the bloomed gelatin; depending on which way you read it the total comes out at roughly 2 1/2 to 3 cups. Measure the prune liquid before you decide how much gelatin to use.
- "Follow directions on package"The standard method: sprinkle gelatin over the cold water and let it stand 5 minutes, pour on the boiling water and stir until fully dissolved, stir in the sugar until it too dissolves, then add the chilled prune liquid and lemon juice.
- Keep the fruit suspendedChill the jelly until it is the consistency of raw egg white before folding in the quartered prunes, or they will all settle to the bottom of the mold. Then chill until firm, at least 4 hours.
- SugarThree-quarters of a cup is a lot for this quantity by modern taste. Start at 1/3 to 1/2 cup and taste the liquid before it sets.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; about three cups of liquid plus the fruit will roughly fill a 1-quart mold. Unmold onto a cold plate and pass cream, whipped or plain, separately.
Prunes were among the cheapest and most dependable fruits in the American winter pantry, shipped dried from California, which is why they turn up so often in books like this one as the base for puddings, pies, whips and jellies when nothing fresh was to be had. The instruction to "follow directions on package" dates the recipe precisely: packaged granulated gelatin, generally traced to the domestic products of the 1890s, had replaced the older household labor of boiling down calves' feet or shaving sheets of isinglass, and a molded jelly went from a project to an afternoon's work. Butterick, a pattern company, published this kind of compendium for the same audience that bought its dress patterns.