Jellied Soup
Stiffen a clear soup with a little gelatine so that when chilled it will be sufficiently firm to hold the outline of a spoon. Serve two large tablespoons in each cup.
A
Barely more than a note, this is jellied consommé: a clear stock set just firmly enough to hold a shape, served cold in cups. Everything depends on the strength of the stock and the amount of gelatine, neither of which the original specifies.
- The hinge: a soft set, not a firm oneThe soup should slump slightly and take the mark of a spoon, not stand up like a moulded jelly. Aim for something between a loose custard and a set aspic; if it needs cutting, there is too much gelatine.
- "A little gelatine" is genuinely unmeasuredThe original gives no quantity, and the right amount depends on how much natural gelatine the stock already carries. A stock made with veal knuckle or calf's foot may set on its own in the refrigerator, while a lean chicken or beef broth will not. Test by chilling a spoonful on a saucer before setting the whole batch.
- Gelatine handlingPowdered or leaf gelatine should be softened in cold liquid, then dissolved in hot soup off the boil. Prolonged boiling weakens the set.
- Clear means clearJellied soup shows every fault, so the stock wants clarifying and thorough degreasing. Chill the stock first and lift the fat cap off solid; cold fat in a cold jelly reads as scum.
- Seasoning cold foodChilling flattens salt and acid. Season the soup slightly more assertively than you would if serving it hot, and taste again once set.
- Chilling timeAllow at least four hours in the refrigerator, and overnight if the stock is lean. Break the set up lightly with a fork before spooning it out so it falls in glistening flakes.
- Serving and yieldTwo large tablespoons per cup is about 1 fl oz per person, so a quart of soup serves upwards of two dozen. This is a first course in the old sense, an appetiser rather than a bowl of soup; bouillon cups or small glasses suit it.
Jellied consomme belongs to the warm-weather end of the formal menu, and turns up in English and American cookbooks from the late nineteenth century onward, as domestic iceboxes and commercial ice delivery made reliable chilling more common in ordinary households. Before packaged gelatine, the effect had to come from long-simmered calf's foot or veal knuckle; commercial sheet and granulated gelatine were on sale in the United States by the 1890s, putting it within reach of any cook with a good stock. That the book can dispose of the whole thing in two sentences suggests it assumes the reader already has a clear soup on hand.