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Fruit Jelly
Take one box of gelatine, soak it one hour in a pint of cold water; when well soaked pour on a pint of boiling water; then put in a quart of any kind of fruit, strawberries, raspberries or cherries being nice; add half cup sugar, one spoonful of extract of lemon; pour into a mold, and when cold eat with cream and sugar or whipped cream. It is delicious. - Miss L. A. C., Ky.
A straightforward set fruit jelly from the era when packaged gelatine had just made such things easy. Two things decide whether it works: how much gelatine a "box" was, and which fruit you use.
- One box of gelatineLate-19th-century boxes of granulated gelatine commonly held around 1 oz, though sizes varied by maker; 1 oz sets about a quart of liquid to a firm but spoonable jelly. Four modern 1/4-oz envelopes (about 3 tablespoons) is the nearest equivalent, and with a quart of fruit added the set here will be on the soft side.
- The soak mattersThe hour in cold water is blooming, and it is not optional padding. Gelatine dropped straight into boiling water clumps and leaves gritty threads; give it at least 10 minutes in the cold water even with modern granulated gelatine, and stir until fully dissolved in the hot.
- Fruit that will not set"any kind of fruit" is too generous. Fresh pineapple, kiwi, papaya and fresh figs contain proteases that digest gelatine and leave a syrupy mess. Berries and cherries, as suggested, are safe raw; the tropical fruits work only if cooked or canned first.
- A spoonful of extractRead this as a teaspoon. A tablespoon of lemon extract in a quart of jelly is medicinal.
- SugarHalf a cup for a quart of fruit is restrained by modern dessert standards, and the recipe compensates with sweetened cream at the table. Taste the warm liquid before molding and add more if the fruit is tart.
- Getting it out of the moldRinse the mold with cold water before filling, chill 4 to 6 hours or overnight, then dip the mold briefly in warm water and invert onto a wet plate so the jelly can be slid into position. Let the mixture cool to the thickness of raw egg white before adding the fruit if you want it suspended rather than sunk.
- YieldRoughly two quarts of jelly, serving eight or so.
Recipes like this one mark a shift in American dessert-making. Before packaged gelatine, a fruit jelly meant boiling calves' feet or isinglass for hours and clarifying the result with egg white — laborious work. Commercially prepared sheet and then granulated gelatine, sold by the box through the 1870s and 1880s, brought the same dish within easier reach, and cookbooks of the period fill up with molded jellies, charlottes and "snows" as a result. Collections of this kind printed contributions under initials and a state, as here.