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Claret Jelly
Into an enameled saucepan put one-fourth pound of lump-sugar, ten drams of gelatine, half a pint of claret and half a wineglassful of brandy and let them soak for ten minutes. Then put in the very thin rind of half a lemon, together with half a pound of currant jelly. Place the saucepan on the stove and stir until it boils, then draw it to the side and let simmer for five minutes. Moisten the inside of a jelly-mould with cold water, strain the jelly into it, and when quite cold turn it into a glass dish, and serve.
A Victorian wine jelly: sweet, set firm, and turned out whole. The measurements are the main obstacle, and the gelatine figure is the one to read carefully.
- Ten drams of gelatine is ambiguousAn apothecaries' dram is about 3.9 g, giving roughly 39 g; an avoirdupois dram is 1.77 g, giving about 18 g. The difference is between a firm moulded jelly and a soft one, so weigh against your own gelatine's package ratio rather than trusting the conversion.
- Claret and brandyClaret is the British term for red Bordeaux, and any dry, moderately tannic red will stand in. Half a pint is one US cup (a British half-pint would be 10 fl oz); half a wineglassful is about 1 fl oz of brandy.
- Sugar and jelly weightsA quarter pound of lump sugar is about half a cup granulated. Half a pound of currant jelly is roughly two-thirds of a cup and supplies both the pectin sheen and most of the sweetness; redcurrant jelly from the condiment aisle is the same thing.
- Do not hard-boil the gelatineThe instruction to bring it to a boil and simmer five minutes reflects the coarser, less refined gelatine of the period. Modern powdered or leaf gelatine loses setting strength with prolonged boiling; bring it just to the point of dissolving and hold it below a simmer.
- Enamelled pan for a reasonWine, currant jelly and lemon are all acidic enough to pick up metallic flavours from bare aluminium or unlined copper. Enamel, stainless or glass is what the direction is protecting.
- Lemon rind"Very thin" means peel with no white pith, which turns the jelly bitter. Take it off with a vegetable peeler and remove it in the straining.
- Moulding and turning outRinsing the mould with cold water rather than oiling it lets the set jelly release cleanly. Chill at least four hours; to unmould, dip the mould in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto the glass dish.
- YieldAbout two to two and a half cups of jelly, serving four to six as a light dessert.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection catalogues the repertoire of a hotel that was defining what wealthy New Yorkers ate, and moulded wine jellies were a fixture of that repertoire: cheap in labour once gelatine came ready-refined, showy on a sideboard, and easy to hold cold in a hotel larder. Earlier households had to make their own gelatine by boiling calves' feet or dissolving isinglass, a day's work that made a clear jelly a genuine display of a kitchen's competence; by Oscar's time packaged sheet and powdered gelatine had made the same effect routine, which is precisely why so many jellies appear in books of the 1890s. Claret, the English trade name for the red wines of Bordeaux, is generally traced to the medieval French clairet, a lighter-coloured red, and the word survived in Anglo-American usage long after the wines themselves had darkened. The pairing with currant jelly is older still: redcurrant was the standard sweet-tart preserve of the nineteenth-century store cupboard, used as readily in a dessert as alongside game.