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Lemon Jelly
Mrs. W. Guthrie.
One paper of gelatine; let it stand one hour in warm water; then add one quart of boiling water, the juice of three or four lemons, and a pint and a-half of sugar.
A plain gelatine jelly of the kind that filled moulds at Victorian suppers. Everything hinges on how much gelatine "one paper" actually was, since the rest of the recipe is unambiguous.
- One paper of gelatinePackaged gelatine was sold in papers or packets of varying size, commonly somewhere in the region of half an ounce to an ounce, and brands differed in setting strength, so this quantity is genuinely uncertain. For a quart of liquid plus lemon juice that will be turned out of a mould, about 1 oz of modern granulated gelatine (four ¼-oz envelopes) gives a firm jelly; half that sets a soft one you serve in glasses.
- Warm water for soakingModern gelatine is bloomed in cold water for five minutes, not stood an hour in warm. Nineteenth-century shred and sheet gelatine was coarser and needed the long soak; warm water simply hurried it along. Either way the swollen gelatine is then dissolved by the boiling water, and it should never be boiled itself.
- A pint and a half of sugarVolume measure, so about 3 cups, or roughly 21 oz by weight. That is very sweet against a quart of water and the juice of three lemons — closer to a modern lemon syrup than a dessert jelly. Two cups is nearer current taste and will make little practical difference to the set.
- LemonsThree to four Victorian lemons give perhaps ½ to ¾ cup of juice. Add the pared zest to the hot liquid and steep ten minutes before straining; the recipe relies on juice alone, and the oil in the peel is where most of the lemon flavour actually lives.
- StrainingThe recipe does not mention it, though clear jellies of this kind were normally strained. Pour the finished liquid through a flannel jelly bag or a double thickness of damp muslin without squeezing, or the jelly will be cloudy rather than clear.
- SettingRinse the mould with cold water, fill, and chill four to six hours or overnight. A Victorian cook used an ice-house or a cold cellar and allowed longer. To unmould, dip the mould in warm water for a few seconds only.
- YieldRoughly a litre and a half of jelly, enough for eight to ten servings from a mould, or ten to twelve in glasses.
Packaged gelatine was still a modern convenience when this book appeared. Before it, clear jellies meant boiling calves' feet or isinglass for hours and clarifying the result with egg white, an all-day job that is often said to have marked a household with servants; the "paper of gelatine" sold by Cox, Nelson and others put the same dish within reach of any kitchen with a mould and a lemon. Lemon seems to have been among the commonest flavours, perhaps because it needed nothing but fruit and sugar, and, it is sometimes suggested, because the acidity cut what could otherwise taste faintly of the animal it came from. The Home Cook Book, published in Toronto in 1877 and generally described as Canada's first fundraising cookbook, gathered such contributions by name from local women in aid of the Hospital for Sick Children — which is why Mrs. W. Guthrie's jelly is recorded in her own brief, assumed-knowledge shorthand rather than written out for a stranger.