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Wine Jelly
Soak one-half box of gelatine in one-half cup of cold water and dissolve in three-fourths cup of boiling water; add one cup of sugar, one cup of sherry, catawba or Madeira wine; one-fourth cup orange juice, and three tablespoons of lemon juice. Dip a mold in water, and strain the jelly into it. Chill.
A straightforward molded gelatin dessert, but the measurement that matters most — "one-half box of gelatine" — no longer exists on shelves.
- Half a box of gelatineA box of granulated gelatine was generally about 1 oz, reckoned as four portions of roughly 1/4 oz each. Half a box is about 1/2 oz, or roughly 1 1/2 level tablespoons (two modern envelopes).
- Total liquid and the setThe recipe comes to roughly 2 3/4 cups of liquid for about 1/2 oz of gelatine, which is a firm ratio by modern reckoning, though both the alcohol and the citrus acid work against a gelatin set. Expect a jelly that unmolds but stays tender.
- Never boil the gelatineHandling the gelatine -- Soak in the cold water until the granules swell, then stir into the boiling water until fully clear. Avoid prolonged boiling once it has dissolved, which can weaken the set.
- Add the wine last and coldDissolve the sugar in the hot liquid, then stir in the wine and juices. Adding wine to boiling liquid drives off the aroma that is the whole point of the dish.
- The winesSherry or Madeira are still easy to find; Catawba is an American native grape wine, once common and now a regional bottling, usually sweet. If your wine is sweet, cut the sugar to about 3/4 cup.
- Dipping the moldThe cold-water dip is not decoration — the film of water lets the set jelly release. A thin coating of neutral oil works as well. Chill at least 4 hours, and overnight for a firm mold.
- Strain, and mean itStraining catches citrus pulp and any undissolved gelatin, which is what keeps the finished jelly clear. A fine sieve or a double layer of cheesecloth.
- YieldAbout 3 cups once the sugar is dissolved, serving six in small glasses or filling a 1-quart mold. The alcohol is not cooked off, so this is not a children's dessert.
Wine jelly belongs to a long line of clear molded jellies that began as an expensive luxury: before granulated gelatine, cooks extracted their own from calves' feet or isinglass, a day's boiling, skimming and clarifying for a single dish. Commercial granulated gelatine, sold in boxes of pre-measured portions by the end of the nineteenth century, cut that labor drastically and moved jellies from the confectioner's kitchen into the ordinary household — which is why a book like this one can list wine jelly casually among the cold desserts. The three wines named trace the taste of the period: sherry and Madeira were familiar fortified wines of the American sideboard, while Catawba, a native American grape long associated with Ohio River plantings, was a common domestic bottling. Jellies of this kind also did double duty in invalid cookery, where a wine jelly was considered light and restorative and appears in the sickroom chapters of many contemporary manuals.