No. 3654

Northern Jelly Candies

Bonbons du Nord a la Gelee

Fasten some plaster half-spherical or convex molds on a ruler and with it make the impressions in the starch. Prepare a pint of apple jelly the same as in No. 3668, only cooking it a little more; bring this to the ordinary degree of cooking, adding either rum, kirsch or other liquor, then cast it in the starch impressions through a spring funnel (Fig. 759). Put the boxes in a heater and leave for eight or ten hours. By this time the jelly will have formed into thin crusts sufficiently hardened to be taken out carefully and laid on a wire sieve. When cold, brush each one separately with a fine hair brush and then dip into a liquor-flavored fondant (No. 58). Instead of dipping them in the fondant they can be candied by laying them in a cold syrup, the same as for No. 3659.

← No. 3653 Candies for Mottoes Candies & Bonbons No. 3655 Nougat, Soft and Hard →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is starch-mogul work: a tray of dried starch is impressed with molds, hot jelly is deposited into the cavities, and the pieces set overnight before being brushed clean and coated. Nothing about the method has changed, but almost all of Ranhofer's vocabulary and equipment has.

The starch tray is the whole jobFill a shallow wooden or metal box with cornstarch dried in a low oven and leveled off with a straightedge. Damp starch will not hold an impression and will weep into the jelly; it must be bone dry, and it can be sifted and dried again for reuse.
Plaster molds on a rulerThis is a hand-made mogul board: half-spheres glued in a row along a wooden batten, pressed into the starch to stamp a line of cavities at a time. Food-safe silicone hemispheres screwed or glued to a lath do the same work, as will a row of wooden beads.
"Spring funnel"A funnel with a rod in the throat, lifted and dropped to release a measured shot of hot jelly. A small metal jug with a good spout, or a piping bag with a plain tip, deposits cleanly enough at this scale.
"The ordinary degree of cooking" is not a numberRanhofer is referring to his own degrees of sugar boiling, and the phrase is genuinely ambiguous out of context. In practice an apple jelly for casting is taken well past a spreading jelly, into the range where it will set firm enough to unmold and hold a shape.
Add the liquor off the heatRum or kirsch stirred in while the pan is still boiling loses most of its aroma and drops the temperature unevenly. Take the pan off, stir the spirit through, and cast at once before a skin forms.
"Put the boxes in a heater"A warm drying cupboard, not an oven. Ranhofer gives no temperature; over the eight to ten hours specified the aim is gentle warmth, drying the surface slowly so a crust forms without the centers cooking or the starch scorching.
Brushing mattersEvery trace of starch must come off before dipping, or the fondant will not adhere and the finished sweet will taste of raw cornstarch. A soft pastry or makeup brush, one piece at a time, exactly as written.
Fondant or crystal finishThe alternative given is the cold syrup bath, which grows a thin sugar crystal shell over the piece instead of a fondant coat.
YieldThe number of pieces from a pint of jelly depends entirely on the size of the mold. Store the finished pieces in a single layer in a dry, cool place; humidity will make either coating sticky.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its confectionery chapters are essentially a French confiseur's manual set down in English. The starch-mogul method described here, casting hot syrups into impressions stamped in dried starch, was the standard industrial and professional technique for jellies, gums and liqueur cordials through the nineteenth century, and it is still used for commercial jelly beans and gumdrops. The name bonbons du Nord, "sweets of the North," is the sort of trade designation that circulated among French confectioners without a firm documented origin. That an American restaurant kitchen kept plaster molds, starch boxes and a drying heater on hand says a good deal about what a Delmonico's dessert service was expected to include.