No. 2442

Borders of Different Shaped Jelly Croutons

Bordures de Differentes Formes en Croutons de Gelee

Procure very firm and very clear jelly (No. 123) cooled on tin plates two inches high; unmold when very cold on wet napkins having all the moisture squeezed out, then spread on the table without any creases whatever. The jelly can be cut into many shapes (see Figs. 457 to 465, jelly croutons for borders). Lay them on the edge of the inside of the basin with regularity. They must be cut very evenly. The effect they produce can easily be seen on the different designs the plates offer. Round croutons are cut with a round pastry cutter that has been well heated in hot water. The thickness of the crouton should be in proportion to its diameter.

← No. 2441 Tenderloin of Beef with Vegetables, Mayonnai The Cold Service No. 2443 Vegetable Borders →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a garde-manger technique rather than a dish in itself: firm aspic jelly is set in a shallow sheet, turned out, and cut into geometric shapes that ring the inside of a cold platter or bowl. Everything depends on the jelly being set harder than you would ever set a dessert.

What "jelly No. 123" isRanhofer's cross-reference is to one of his jelly preparations from the earlier part of the book; from the context of the cold service it is a savory aspic rather than a sweet gelatin, i.e. what a modern kitchen would build as a clarified aspic on strong veal or poultry stock.
Set it firmCroutons cut from ordinary table-strength jelly will slump and lose their edges within minutes on the plate. Aspic intended for cutting is set noticeably stiffer than aspic used for coating; test a spoonful on a cold saucer before committing the whole batch, since gelatin strength varies between brands and between sheet and powdered forms.
"Tin plates two inches high"This most likely describes shallow straight-sided pans that need only be filled part way. Judge the depth of the sheet by the size of your cutters rather than assuming a full two inches of jelly.
The hinge: everything stays coldChill the sheet thoroughly, work on a cold surface, and cut quickly. Warm hands and a warm table round off the corners, which defeats the whole point of a geometric border.
The damp napkinSqueezing the cloth out completely matters. A wet napkin dilutes and clouds the surface; a creased one prints the crease permanently into the jelly.
Heating the cutterDipping a round cutter in hot water and wiping it lets it pass through cleanly instead of tearing. Do the same with a knife for diamonds, triangles and crescents, wiping between every cut.
Thickness in proportion to diameterSmall croutons cut from a thick sheet look like blocks; large ones cut thin flop over. Match the sheet thickness to the cutter you intend to use rather than the reverse.
Yield and useNo quantity is given because it depends on the platter. Cut what the border needs and chop the trimmings for a bed of aspic.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the cold kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry belongs to a run of numbered instructions for bordures — the decorative rims that framed cold mousses, galantines and chaud-froid pieces on a buffet. Cold dishes of this kind were made to stand on display, so a border had to hold its edges; cut aspic gave a precision that no sauce could. The numbered figures Ranhofer refers to (457 to 465) are illustrations of these shapes in the book, essentially a pattern book for the garde-manger. The craft survived into mid-twentieth-century professional cookery as chopped aspic and croûtons de gelée, though the elaborate cut-jelly border went out with the grand buffet itself.