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Jelly for General Use
Strain the galantine stock into a basin. Skim fat from surface, add three ounces clear gelatine leaves and mix with a whisk until well dissolved. Place in a saucepan one pound finely chopped, lean, raw veal, a finely sliced carrot, one ditto onion, two ditto leeks, one branch parsley, one branch chervil, one branch tarragon, half a sprig thyme, one bay leaf, one clove and the whites of four eggs. Sharply stir with spatula two minutes, then with a ladle gradually pour in the galantine stock with the jelly, and continually mix briskly while adding it. Place pan on fire and let it come to boiling point, carefully mixing meanwhile, pour in a gill cold water, shift pan to the corner of range and very slowly simmer one and a half hours. Pour in gill sherry, boil for five minutes more. Carefully press through a dampened, double cheesecloth into an ordinary clean stone jar, let cool off, then place in the ice box until hard. Arrange a sheet of paper over, cover, and always keep it in the ice box.
N. B. When the jelly is nearly finished and no galantine stock is on hand use strong white broth instead, but always have some jelly on hand in hot weather.
This is a classic clarified aspic — the stock jelly that a professional larder kept on hand to coat galantines, chaud-froids and cold moulded dishes. The whole procedure hinges on the egg-white raft, and everything else follows from protecting it.
- Never stir once it simmersStop stirring once the raft sets -- The chopped veal, vegetables and egg whites form a raft that traps the cloud-making particles. The recipe has you mix briskly while the cold stock goes in and to keep mixing carefully as it comes up to the boil; once the raft has coagulated and risen, leave it alone, or you will break it and the jelly will be cloudy.
- A gillHalf a cup, 4 fl oz. The cold gill added at boiling point drops the temperature and settles the raft — it is not optional padding.
- "Corner of the range"On a coal range, the coolest spot. In a modern kitchen this means the lowest burner setting, a bare shiver of movement at the surface, around 180F. A rolling boil will emulsify fat back into the liquid and shred the raft.
- The gelatine is ambiguousThree ounces (85 g) of leaf gelatine is a very large amount by modern standards, and sheet gelatine is sold today in several grades (bronze, gold, platinum) of differing bloom strength, so weight alone does not tell you the setting power. A good veal-and-galantine stock will also set to some degree on its own. Test with a spoonful chilled on a saucer before committing to a full dose.
- Galantine stockThe poaching liquor left from cooking a galantine — rich, gelatinous, well seasoned. The note at the end gives the substitute: strong white stock, meaning veal and poultry bones simmered without browning.
- StrainingLadle gently through a doubled cheesecloth that has been wetted and wrung out; dry cloth absorbs and drags. Do not press or squeeze, whatever the original says, or fine solids go through with the liquid.
- StorageThe stone jar and the paper cover were the period's answer to airborne mould. A cooked meat jelly is a low-acid, high-protein food; refrigerate it in a covered container and use within three or four days, or freeze it in portions. The "always keep in the ice box" instruction is the important part of the sentence.
- YieldDepends entirely on how much galantine stock you started with, but a batch built on this quantity of clarification meat suits roughly 2 to 3 quarts of stock.
Aspic of this kind was the backbone of the cold kitchen in the grand-hotel era: a neutral, brilliant, faintly sherried jelly used to glaze galantines, line moulds, set chaud-froid coatings and cut into croutons for garnish. The clarification technique — lean chopped meat and egg white whisked into cold stock, then brought slowly up so the coagulating proteins rise and drag the cloud with them — is the same one still taught for consommé, and it long predates this book. The International Cook Book was compiled by Alexander Filippini, who spent decades at Delmonico's in New York, and the entry reads exactly like a professional garde manger's standing order rather than a household recipe: it assumes galantine stock is lying about, it tells the cook to keep a jar going at all times, and it adds the pointed reminder that in hot weather you will want jelly on hand. Before mechanical refrigeration was universal, a firm aspic was as much a preservative coating as a decoration.