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Aspic Jelly Sandwich
Soak one box (two ounces) of gelatine in one cup of chicken liquor until softened; add three cupfuls of chicken stock seasoned with a little parsley, celery, three cloves, a blade of mace, and dash of salt and pepper. Strain into a dish and add a little shredded breast of chicken; set in a cold place to harden; when cold, slice in fancy shapes and place on slightly buttered whole wheat bread. Garnish with a stick of celery.
A cold-buffet sandwich that depends entirely on the set of the jelly: too soft and it slumps on the bread, too firm and it eats like rubber. The gelatine quantity is the only figure that needs real attention.
- The gelatine is the hingeTwo ounces of granulated gelatine to four cups of liquid would set very firm by modern standards. Modern unflavoured gelatine comes in 1/4-ounce (7 g) envelopes, and 2 to 3 envelopes for the full four cups gives a jelly firm enough to slice cleanly and still pleasant to eat.
- Chicken liquorMost likely the strained liquid a chicken was poached in, as against the stock called for after; the recipe does not spell out the difference. If you have only one pot of stock, use it for both; soak the gelatine in one cold cup of it and warm the remaining three.
- A blade of maceOne whole piece of the lacy aril from a nutmeg, an inch or so long. Failing that, a scant 1/8 teaspoon of ground mace added to the warm stock, bearing in mind that ground mace will not strain out and will slightly cloud the jelly.
- Strain properlyThe recipe says strain for a reason: cloves, celery and parsley debris ruin the look of a clear aspic. Line the sieve with damp muslin or a coffee filter and let it drip rather than pressing it through.
- Setting"A cold place" means the refrigerator. Pour into a shallow pan so the jelly is about half an inch deep, which slices and lifts far more easily than a deep block; allow at least four hours, or overnight.
- Cutting fancy shapesDip a small cutter or knife in hot water between cuts and the edges stay sharp. Lift slices with an offset spatula onto the bread just before serving; aspic weeps if it sits on buttered bread for long.
- The butter matters"Slightly buttered" is not decoration. A thin film of butter on the whole wheat seals the crumb against the moisture in the jelly and keeps the bread from turning to paste.
- YieldFour cups of jelly in a shallow pan yields roughly a dozen sandwich-sized slices, depending on your cutter.
Aspic held a peculiar authority in American cooking between about 1880 and the First World War, when commercial powdered gelatine made a jelly that had previously demanded a day of boiling calves' feet into something a household cook could produce from a box. Sandwich books of the period, aimed largely at luncheons, teas and card parties, made frequent use of it, and it is easy to see the appeal: a jelly could be cut into stars and crescents and would hold its shape on a tray for an hour or two of standing about. The whole wheat bread here is a small marker of the era's health enthusiasm, and the stick of celery on the plate was a common garnish in the years when celery was still a somewhat prestigious vegetable, sold in tall glass vases at the table. The dish is less a recipe than a use for the remains of a poached fowl, which is exactly the sort of economy these books were written to teach.