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Port Wine Jelly
Place in a basin an ounce of isinglass, together with half that quantity of gum arabic and mix in a pint of port wine covering it over with a plate and leaving it until the following morning, then turn it into a lined saucepan and mix in with it a couple of ounces of brown sugar candy and a small piece of nutmeg, simmering it gently until the isinglass is dissolved. Then strain the jelly through a fine hair-sieve and pour it into a mould, and when it has become quite cold turn it out onto a dish, and serve.
A Victorian invalid jelly built on isinglass rather than modern gelatin, which is the one thing that has to be translated before anything else. Everything else is straightforward.
- Isinglass is not gelatin, quantity-wiseIsinglass is a clarified collagen from fish swim bladders, and the strength of the grades sold varied, so period quantities tended to run generous; an ounce per pint is well above what a modern set needs. Powdered gelatin is stronger and more predictable: for a jelly firm enough to turn out of a mould, count on roughly 14-18 g (about 2 to 2 1/2 envelopes) per pint of liquid. Substituting an ounce of gelatin for an ounce of isinglass gives a rubbery block.
- Gum arabicHalf an ounce of gum arabic is here for body and gloss, not for setting. Food-grade acacia gum is still sold as a baking and confectionery ingredient; if you leave it out, the jelly sets perfectly well but is a little less glossy and less viscous on the tongue.
- Brown sugar candyThis means crystallised brown rock candy, a common grocer's sugar of the period. Two ounces (about 55 g) of demerara or a soft dark brown sugar gives much the same sweetness and molasses note.
- A small piece of nutmegWhole nutmeg, broken rather than grated, as the recipe's 'small piece' implies, so it can be lifted out or strained off. A small fragment is enough for a pint; grated nutmeg is harder to remove cleanly and can cloud the jelly.
- Lined saucepanThe recipe specifies a lined pan rather than bare copper or iron, which react with acidic, tannic wine; it gives no reason itself. Any stainless or enamelled pan does the job.
- Never let it boilSimmer gently, do not boil hard -- The recipe says to simmer gently. Prolonged hard boiling weakens gelatin's set, and boiling also drives off the port aroma that is the point of the dish. Warm it only until the isinglass or gelatin is fully dissolved and no grains remain on a spoon.
- Hair sieveA fine-mesh sieve lined with a double layer of damp muslin or a coffee filter. Let it drip rather than pressing it through, or the jelly goes cloudy.
- Moulding and turning outRinse the mould in cold water and do not oil it. To unmould, dip the outside in hot water for a few seconds and invert onto a wetted dish so the jelly can be slid into place.
- Yield and strengthA pint makes about four small portions. Gentle heating drives off some of the alcohol but far from all of it, so this remains a strongly alcoholic jelly and not a dessert for children.
Port wine jelly belongs to the branch of nineteenth-century cookery called invalid or sick-room cookery: a restorative fed by the spoonful to convalescents, on the reasoning that wine strengthened, isinglass nourished, and jelly could be swallowed by someone with no appetite. Isinglass, made from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, was among the usual domestic gelling agents before commercial sheet and powdered gelatin displaced it, and it was costly enough that a jelly like this counted as a small luxury even in a sick room. Gum arabic, then a common pharmacy item as much as a kitchen one, reinforces the medicinal genealogy.