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Snow Jelly
A package of gelatine soaked till quite soft in a cup of cold water, then add about a quart of boiling water; stir till quite dissolved; add juice and grated rind of three lemons; sugar to taste ; strain through muslin, and set in a cold place. When quite stiff, beat in the whites of four well beaten eggs, and then pour into moulds. It will make about a quart and a-half. This is very suitable for invalids who cannot take wine, also an exceedingly ornamental jelly.
The problem here is not the gelatine but the four egg whites, which are folded raw into a jelly that has already cooled and are never heated again.
- Raw egg white, never cookedThe whites go into jelly that has been set in a cold place, so nothing in the finished dish ever reaches a temperature that would kill Salmonella. Raw whites are not risk-free either: shell-surface contamination can be carried into the white during separation.
- Intended for the sickThe recipe recommends itself for invalids. That is precisely the group — convalescents, the elderly, anyone immunocompromised — for whom raw-egg dishes are most strongly advised against today. Any current recipe using pasteurised whites or a cooked meringue base should be used instead.
- "A package of gelatine" is not a fixed quantityNineteenth-century gelatine was sold in various forms and package sizes, and there is no reason to assume a period package matched the quarter-ounce envelope sold now. The original gives no way to know the set strength intended.
Snow jellies belong to the great Victorian family of invalid cookery — beef tea, arrowroot gruel, calf's-foot jelly, wine jelly — dishes judged nourishing, digestible and, just as importantly, pretty enough to tempt someone with no appetite. The note that it suits "invalids who cannot take wine" is telling: wine jelly was a common sickroom sweet, and temperance sentiment, often said to have been strong among the households The Home Cook Book was compiled for, plausibly made an alcohol-free version worth printing. The whiteness that gives the dish its name came from beating air into the set jelly with egg white; commercial powdered gelatine, still fairly new and sparing the labour of boiling down calves' feet at home, is what made such a recipe casual enough for a subscription cookbook rather than a professional confectioner's manual.