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Orange Jelly
One-half box of gelatine soaked in one-half cup of cold water, one and one-half cups of boiling water; one cup of sugar; grated rind and juice of three oranges; two tablespoons of lemon juice. Follow directions for making Lemon Jelly.
A straightforward molded gelatine dessert whose only real difficulty is the vanished unit in the first line. The cross-reference to Lemon Jelly means: dissolve the soaked gelatine with the sugar in the boiling water, add the fruit juice and rind, strain, mold, and chill.
- "One-half box of gelatine"Granulated gelatine of the period was sold in boxes of about an ounce, often divided into two or four papers. Half a box is therefore roughly 1/2 oz, or two modern 1/4-oz envelopes (about 4 1/2 teaspoons). The figure is not exact, so judge by the set rather than the label.
- Liquid ratioThree oranges yield close to a cup of juice, so the total liquid runs to about 3 cups. Two envelopes in 3 cups gives a jelly firm enough to unmold but still tender; if you want it sliceable, hold the boiling water back to 1 cup.
- Soak first, then dissolveThe cold-water soak is not optional. Granulated gelatine must swell for five minutes before hot liquid hits it, or it will clump and leave threads through the finished jelly.
- Never boil the gelatineAdd the softened gelatine and sugar to the hot water and stir until clear, but do not hold it at a rolling boil; prolonged boiling weakens gelatine's setting strength.
- StrainGrated rind is there for aroma only. Pour the jelly through a fine sieve or a doubled square of cheesecloth before it goes into the mold, or the rind and pulp will settle into a cloudy layer at the bottom.
- Oranges have changedOranges vary -- Taste the mixture before molding; a cup of sugar may be more than you want, and a little extra lemon juice keeps it from tasting flat.
- ChillingRinse the mold with cold water, fill, and refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight for a large single mold. Unmold by dipping the outside briefly in warm water.
- YieldAbout 3 cups, serving six in small molds or glasses.
Fruit jellies like this one belong to the moment when molded desserts moved from luxury to routine. Well into the nineteenth century a clear jelly could still mean boiling calves' feet or buying sheets of isinglass and clarifying the result with egg white -- a full day's work, and a dish that announced a cook with time and staff -- though prepared and packaged gelatines such as Cooper's, Nelson's and Coxe's were sold and used in American cookbooks decades before Knox began in 1890. Packaged granulated gelatine sold by the box, of which Knox is the best remembered American brand, reduced that labor to a five-minute soak, and cookbooks of the 1900s and 1910s responded with long chapters of jellies, sponges and whips built on the same base. The Butterick Cook Book, published by a pattern company for a readership of home sewers and housekeepers, treats the technique as settled: the Lemon Jelly recipe carries the method, and variations simply swap the flavoring.