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Jelly with Fruit Champagne
Put into a stewpan the whites of three well-beaten eggs, three-fourths of a pound of powdered sugar, the juice of one lemon, two ounces of gelatine, and one quart of water; whisk it over the fire until it boils. Remove the jelly from the fire, strain it two or three times through a jelly-bag till quite clear, and when cold stir in one pint of champagne. Make a mixed mince of apples and pears which have been boiled in syrup, and cut to olive-shapes preserved apricots, greengages and dried cherries. Pour a little jelly into the bottom of a plain cylinder-mould, then a layer of fruit, a layer of jelly, and so on until the mould is nearly full. Pack the mould in ice, and when set fill it up with plain jelly, place a baking-sheet with ice on it over the mould, and allow it to freeze for two hours. It is then ready for serving.
A clarified wine jelly built in layers around candied and poached fruit — straightforward once you know that the egg whites here are a filter, not a custard, and that the champagne must never see heat.
- Add the wine off the heatThe pint of champagne goes in only when the jelly is cold, exactly as written. Heat drives off both the alcohol and the aromatics, and a warm jelly will lose the bubbles instantly; even cold, expect the fizz to be gone by the time it sets, leaving the wine flavour behind.
- The egg whites are a clarifying raftWhisking the whites into the liquid and bringing it to a boil coagulates them into a mat that traps cloudiness. Stop whisking as it comes up to the boil, let it rise once, then ladle it gently through a scalded jelly bag or a sieve lined with damp muslin. Pouring the same liquid through two or three times is what makes it clear enough to see the fruit.
- Gelatine strength has changedTwo ounces of gelatine in three pints of liquid gives a firm, sliceable jelly; the recipe does not say whether sheet or powdered is meant. Modern powdered gelatin is generally stronger and more consistent, so around 1 to 1.25 oz (roughly 4 to 5 quarter-ounce envelopes) for the full 6 cups should set a mould firmly without turning it rubbery. Bloom it in a little of the cold water first.
- Powdered sugarIn this period the term means finely ground sugar — what is now sold as caster or superfine. Confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch and will cloud the jelly you have just gone to the trouble of clarifying.
- Olive-shapesCutting fruit to olive shapes means turning it with a small knife into smooth ovals, the same trick used for turned potatoes. Preserved apricots and greengages are firm enough to hold the shape; the recipe lists the dried cherries alongside them.
- The mould and the iceA plain cylinder mould is a straight-sided charlotte or timbale mould. Packing in ice was the only refrigeration available; a refrigerator does the same work. Allow time for each layer to set before adding the next, or the fruit will drift; the recipe allows two hours in ice for the finished mould, and a domestic fridge will want longer.
- Do not actually freeze itThe "freeze for two hours" of the original means chilling hard in an ice pack, not solidifying. A gelatine jelly frozen through weeps badly and goes grainy when it thaws.
- Unmoulding and yieldDip the mould in hot water for three or four seconds, no more, then invert onto a chilled plate. Three pints of jelly plus the fruit will want a mould of around two quarts, and should serve eight or so.
This is a straight piece of the French repertoire as it was practised in the grand hotels: a gelée au champagne, where the point of the dish is less flavour than the display of clarity and precision. Wine jellies with suspended fruit were a nineteenth-century restaurant showpiece, said to depend on things a private household could rarely command — reliable ice for hours on end, clean gelatine, and a cook patient enough to build the mould in layers so the fruit hung suspended rather than sinking to the bottom. Greengages, a green-gold plum generally traced in England to the Gage family in the early eighteenth century, were a standard item in the preserved-fruit larder of the period and appear throughout hotel cookery of the era; they are still sold candied by confectioners, though they have largely vanished from ordinary shops.