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Gelatine Jelly (Dissolve one ounce package)
Dissolve one ounce package of sparkling gelatine in a pint of cold water for an hour; add the rind and juice of two or three large lemons, one and a-half pounds of sugar, then pour on this mixture one quart of boiling water, add one pint of orange or raspberry juice, and pour into moulds. This flavouring is very nice, and is to supersede the necessity of wine, which some considers indispensable in the same proportion.
A straightforward moulded jelly whose proportions still work: the original quantity of gelatine sets almost exactly the volume of liquid called for. Only the sugar and the handling of the rind want attention.
- The ounce packageOne ounce of granulated gelatine is four standard 1/4-oz (7 g) envelopes. Four envelopes set roughly 8 cups of liquid, which is what this recipe amounts to — a pint of cold water, a quart of boiling, a pint of fruit juice — so the ratio is sound as written.
- "Sparkling gelatine"A trade term of the period for refined, clarified sheet or granulated gelatine that produced a clear jelly, as opposed to the cloudy homemade sort boiled from calves' feet. Any modern unflavoured powdered gelatine is the equivalent.
- Do not boil itThe hinge of the recipe is the order of operations: bloom the gelatine in cold water for the full hour, then pour the boiling water onto it. Gelatine held at a rolling boil loses setting power, so heat the water separately and combine off the heat.
- SugarOne and a half pounds is about 3 1/3 cups — very sweet to a modern palate, especially with sweetened fruit juice. A pound (2 1/4 cups) still dissolves and sets properly and tastes closer to a contemporary dessert.
- Lemon rindPare it in wide strips with no white pith, steep it in the hot mixture for ten or fifteen minutes for the oils, then strain everything through a fine sieve or cloth before moulding. Left in, the rind clouds the jelly and turns bitter.
- Fruit juiceRaspberry juice means strained fresh or bottled fruit juice, not a cordial or syrup. Fresh pineapple, kiwi or papaya juice will not work here at all — their enzymes digest gelatine — but the fruits named are fine.
- Setting and unmouldingFour to six hours in the refrigerator for small moulds, overnight for a single large one. Dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert; the original would have relied on whatever cool larder or ice was available, so allow longer if the jelly is soft.
- YieldAbout two quarts, enough for ten to twelve servings.
Moulded jellies were the show dessert of the Victorian table, and the usual flavouring was wine " "wine jelly" made with sherry or Madeira was a common recipe of the period. The closing line here may be doing quiet argumentative work: fruit juice is offered to "supersede the necessity of wine, which some considers indispensable," arguably a nod to the temperance sentiment strong in the church-and-charity cookbook world from which The Home Cook Book came. The recipe also marks a technical shift. Earlier cooks made jelly by simmering calves' feet for hours and clarifying the stock with egg white; commercially packaged refined gelatine, sold by the ounce and dissolved in cold water, reduced that day's labour to an hour's soaking, and recipes like this one " a package, a pint, a mould " are the result.