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Russian Jelly
Soak one-half box of gelatine for one hour in a teacup of cold water, and then melt it by adding one cup of boiling water, stirring until the whole is dissolved. Now add one and one-half cups of sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and three tablespoons of sherry or one of rum. Allow the preparation to cool and when it has almost stiffened beat it until frothy and turn it into molds wet with cold water. Just before serving ornament the jelly with preserved or candied cherries or any soft confection. If liquor or wine is not approved of, shavings from the outer rind of a lemon and a few bits of stick cinnamon may be boiled for ten minutes in the water that is to melt the gelatine.
This is a whipped, or "snow," jelly: the gelatine is beaten as it sets so it holds air and turns opaque and foamy rather than clear. Two details decide whether it works — the amount of gelatine and the moment you start beating.
- "One-half box of gelatine"A box of granulated gelatine in this period is often reckoned at about 1 ounce, but period boxes varied and some held considerably more, so the figure is not exact; half a box is commonly taken as roughly 2 modern envelopes, about 14 g. Against the roughly 2 cups of liquid here that gives a firm jelly that will unmold and still take a beating without collapsing.
- Soaking timeModern granulated gelatine blooms fully in 5 to 10 minutes in cold water. The full hour does no harm but is a holdover from coarser, slower-swelling products.
- The hinge: catch it half set"Almost stiffened" means the consistency of raw egg white — syrupy, mounding slightly off the spoon. Beat sooner and it will not hold foam; beat later and it breaks into lumps that set with seams. Chill in a metal bowl and check every ten minutes, and if it overshoots, warm the bowl briefly over hot water to slacken it.
- SweetnessA cup and a half of sugar in about 2 cups of liquid is very sweet by current taste, and that much sugar also affects the texture of the set. Cutting to one cup is safe; going much lower changes the texture noticeably.
- MoldsRinsing molds with cold water rather than oiling them keeps the surface glossy. To turn out, dip the mold in hot water for a few seconds and invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into position.
- The wineThree tablespoons of sherry or one of rum flavors but does not affect setting. Note the substitution given at the end is a lemon-and-cinnamon infusion for the boiling water only — strain it before adding it to the gelatine.
- Timing and yieldAllow 2 to 3 hours of chilling after molding, or overnight. The quantity fills a 1-quart mold and serves four to six; individual molds are easier to unmold cleanly.
Nineteenth-century cookbooks seem to have used "Russian" loosely for cold desserts served turned out of a mold, and whipped gelatines of this kind appear variously as Russian jelly, Russian cream, or simply snow pudding. The technique — beating a jelly at the point of setting so it doubles in bulk and turns white — was a way of making a small amount of gelatine look generous, and it belongs to the moment when packaged granulated gelatine replaced the older labor of boiling calves' feet or clarifying isinglass. That shift came around the turn of the century — Knox's granulated product dates from about 1890 — and it is why a book like the Butterick Cook Book can treat molded jellies as something any household could manage: the ingredient came in a box, measured out in advance, and needed no skimming. The sherry or rum, and the printed alternative for households where "liquor or wine is not approved of," can be read as a small piece of temperance-era diplomacy typical of American domestic manuals of the period.