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Tomato Jelly Salad
In a saucepan put one-half can of tomatoes, one small bay leaf, four cloves, one inch of a blade of mace, one-half of a teaspoonful of salt, one quarter of a teaspoonful of paprika and ten drops of onion juice; simmer twenty-one minutes; add one-third of a box of gelatine which has been soaked in one-third of a cupful of cold water; stir until dissolved and press through a fine sieve; add two tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar and pour into wetted moulds; when firm, turn out on lettuce leaves and garnish with mayonnaise. For a change, the jelly may be put into a border mould, and when turned out, the center is filled with a chicken, meat or celery salad.
A straightforward savory aspic that depends entirely on getting the gelatin ratio right for the volume of liquid you end up with. Everything else is seasoning.
- The hinge: liquid to gelatinAfter simmering and sieving you will have somewhere around 1 1/2 cups of liquid, counting the 1/3 cup the gelatin was soaked in. That is a firm set for the amount of gelatin called for, which is what an unmolded jelly needs. Measure the strained puree and top up with tomato juice or water if the simmer has taken it much below that.
- "One-third of a box of gelatine"Box sizes of the period varied and sources disagree; a third of a box is somewhere in the region of one modern envelope, but do not treat the equivalence as exact. Do not guess from the box in your cupboard, which is packaged by the envelope.
- "One-half can of tomatoes"Canned tomato sizes of the period varied and were often larger than today's standard tin, so half a can is an approximation; about 1 1/4 cups with juice is a reasonable reading.
- Blade of maceMace is the lacy covering of the nutmeg seed and was sold in whole blades. Substitute a scant 1/8 teaspoon ground mace, or a pinch of grated nutmeg; ground spice gives up its aroma quickly, so add it late in the simmer.
- Onion juiceTen drops means the liquid pressed from a grated onion, not chopped onion. Grate a piece of onion on a fine rasp and squeeze it through a cloth; ten drops is about 1/8 teaspoon, and more will dominate the tomato.
- Simmer timeKeep it at a bare simmer for the stated time so the whole spices infuse. A hard boil will drive off more liquid than the gelatin is set up for.
- Dissolving the gelatinSoak it in cold water first as written, then stir it into the hot tomato off the heat until fully clear. Boiling gelatin after it dissolves weakens the set.
- Wetted mouldsRinse the mould in cold water and leave it wet rather than oiling it, which is what "wetted" means. To unmold, dip briefly in warm water and invert onto the lettuce; chill at least 4 hours, or overnight for a ring mould.
- YieldAround 1 1/2 cups of jelly, which fills four to six small individual moulds as a salad course, or one small ring mould for the version filled with chicken or celery salad.
Molded savory jellies were near-obligatory on the American company table around 1900, and tomato was arguably the most democratic of them: cheap, canned, available year-round, and brightly colored on a bed of lettuce at a time when the appearance of a salad course counted for a good deal. The recipe's confidence about granulated gelatin fits the period. Earlier cooks had to extract their own from calves' feet or isinglass, but by the 1890s boxed sheet and granulated gelatin was a staple grocery item, and cookbooks responded with a flood of aspics, borders and "jellied" salads. The border mould variation at the end is the standard trick of the era, turning one preparation into a centerpiece by filling the ring with a mayonnaise-bound chicken or celery salad. Tarragon vinegar, which the recipe adds off the heat, was the fashionable acid of the moment and appears throughout the salad chapters of turn-of-the-century books.