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Tutti Frutti Jelly
Prepare a gelee a la creme de cocoa. Finely chop up six candied cherries, one candied pear, two candied apricots, two candied plums and a candied lemon peel. Place these articles in a cylinder-shaped mould, embed the mould in ice, then pour the jelly over the fruits; briskly mix with a wooden spoon until it begins to freeze; tightly cover the mould, totally bury it in ice for thirty minutes; remove, dip in tepid water for a few seconds, unmould upon a cold dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A moulded liqueur jelly studded with candied fruit, built on a base recipe given elsewhere in the book. Almost everything here that needs translating has to do with ice: this was written for a kitchen with an ice chest and no mechanical refrigeration.
- The base jellyA gelée à la crème de cacao is a sweetened gelatine jelly flavoured with crème de cacao, the chocolate liqueur. The proportions come from the companion recipe in the same book, so this page alone does not tell you how much gelatine to use; assume roughly 1 tablespoon powdered gelatine (one envelope) per pint of liquid for a jelly firm enough to unmould.
- "Begins to freeze"Nothing here is meant to freeze solid. In period usage the phrase means the jelly is chilling to the point of thickening and setting. Stirring at that moment is the hinge of the recipe: it suspends the fruit evenly instead of letting it sink to what will become the top of the turned-out jelly.
- Ice bath, or refrigeratorBurying the mould in ice is simply how a 1900s kitchen chilled quickly. A bowl of ice and water around the mould does the same job; a refrigerator works too but needs two to four hours rather than thirty minutes, and you will still want to stir the fruit in as the jelly thickens.
- Candied fruitCandied pear, apricot and plum are harder to find than they were; glacé cherries, candied citron and mixed candied peel are the usual modern stand-ins. Rinse off surface syrup and blot dry, or the fruit will cloud the jelly. The recipe calls for the fruit finely chopped; small pieces stay in suspension better than large ones.
- Candied lemon peelThe recipe's "a candied lemon peel" may mean a whole candied peel or a single strip; it does not say. Chopped fine, it adds aroma to a jelly otherwise flavoured with chocolate liqueur and sugar.
- The mouldA cylinder mould means a straight-sided timbale or charlotte form; the recipe does not give a size. Rinse it with cold water before filling and do not oil it; oil leaves a dull film on a clear jelly.
- UnmouldingA few seconds in tepid water is right — long enough to release, not long enough to melt the surface. If the jelly resists, run a thin knife around the top edge to break the vacuum rather than dipping again.
- Serving and yieldServing -- The folded napkin under the jelly is a service convention of the period. The recipe gives no yield or holding time.
Tutti frutti is Italian for "all fruits," and by the late nineteenth century it had become a general American and European term for any confection carrying a mix of chopped candied fruit — ice creams, ices, puddings and jellies alike. This version belongs to the era's fashion for clear liqueur jellies, moulded and turned out whole, which were made easier by two things: commercially refined sheet and powdered gelatine, which spared the labour of boiling down calves' feet, and reliable supplies of block ice. Crème de cacao is generally traced to French liqueur making and was a familiar bar and pastry-kitchen bottle by the time this book was compiled. Service on a folded napkin, the cylinder mould and the ice burial all suit a well-equipped kitchen, professional or domestic.