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Lemon Jelly Pudding
Prepare one quart of lemon jelly, pour part of it in a mould holding two quarts, making a layer about one-half inch thick, then stand it on ice and leave till set. Cut some candied cherries in two, arrange them on the top of the set jelly, pour in two or three tablespoonfuls of cold liquid jelly to hold the cherries, then pour in enough jelly to cover them. When the jelly is perfectly set, put a mould holding one quart in the center of the large one, and fill the intervening space with jelly. Fill the small mould with ice, and set both in a basin of ice and water. When the jelly is again hard, take the ice out of the smaller mould, fill it with warm water and lift it out carefully. Fill the cavity left by the small mould with the lemon sponge, and let it stand until hard. Turn the pudding onto a fancy dish, pour a lemon-flavored custard round it, and serve.
This is an assembly job rather than a cooking one: a two-quart mould lined with clear lemon jelly, hollowed with a smaller mould, and filled with lemon sponge. The whole thing succeeds or fails on temperature control at each stage.
- The hinge: set each layer before adding the nextEvery addition of liquid jelly must go onto a layer that is fully firm, and it must itself be cold and only just fluid — barely above setting point. Warm jelly poured onto set jelly melts a channel through it and the cherries drift.
- "Lemon jelly" means gelatinThe lemon jelly here is a clear gelatin jelly set with lemon, not commercial flavored powder; the recipe itself does not specify quantities or the form of gelatin. If you substitute a packaged lemon gelatin, use it at slightly less water than the box states so the lining is firm enough to unmould.
- "Stand it on ice" is refrigerationAn ice-and-water bath was the standard chilling method in a hotel kitchen of this period. A refrigerator does the same work; allow roughly 30-45 minutes per thin layer and two to three hours for the thick outer wall.
- The inner mould trickFilling the small mould with ice chills the jelly from the inside as it sets and helps hold the mould down as jelly is poured around it. Warm water in the same mould later loosens its grip — seconds only, or you will melt the surrounding jelly.
- Lemon sponge and raw egg whitesLemon sponge of this period is typically a gelatin base whipped with beaten egg whites and not heated. If you make it that way, use pasteurized whites; the uncooked version is not something to serve to anyone vulnerable.
- The custardThe lemon-flavored custard is a stirred custard (crème anglaise), thickened over low heat to about 175-180F and never boiled, then chilled. Pour it around the base of the pudding rather than over it, so the jelly stays glossy.
- UnmouldingDip the two-quart mould in warm water for 10-15 seconds, dry the outside, and invert onto a chilled platter. A wet platter lets you slide the pudding into the center if it lands off-square.
- Yield and timingTwo quarts of finished pudding serves 10 to 12. Plan on a full day: the layers cannot be rushed, and the assembled pudding holds well overnight in the refrigerator, covered.
Oscar Tschirky presided over the Waldorf's dining rooms at the moment when gelatin work was the clearest display of a kitchen's skill and its ice supply. Clear jellies moulded in layers, with fruit suspended in them and a whipped "sponge" packed into a hollow center, are the cold-kitchen equivalent of a bomb e glac e, and such shells were built by setting a smaller mould inside a larger one. Prepared gelatine had by then become reliable and cheap enough that this kind of pudding no longer meant boiling calves' feet, which is why so many moulded jellies crowd the dessert chapters of American cookbooks of the period. The candied cherries, visible through the transparent lemon wall, are the entire point: the dish was meant to be looked at before it was eaten.