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Claret Jelly
(England.) Melt 1 ounce gelatine in 1/2 pint of boiling water, add 1 quart of claret, 3/4 pound sugar, rind and juice of a lemon, and stir until it boils, strain and add a pinch of powdered cinnamon. Pour into a mould, set on ice, and turn out. Serve with cream.
A wine jelly of the sort that was expected to stand up on a platter and be sliced, which means it is set considerably firmer than a modern dessert jelly. The measurements are English, so the pints and quarts are imperial.
- Imperial liquid measuresAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz (about 1 1/4 US cups) and an imperial quart is 40 fl oz (about 4 3/4 US cups). Total liquid is therefore about 6 US cups, which is more than a US quart of wine — plan on two standard 750 ml bottles.
- The gelatineOne ounce is about four 1/4-oz envelopes, roughly 28 g, for 50 fl oz of liquid. That is a firm unmoulding jelly. If you want it spoonable rather than sliceable, drop to about 20 g.
- Do not actually boil it"Stir until it boils" is the instruction most worth ignoring. Prolonged boiling can weaken gelatine's set, and it drives off more of the wine's aroma; heating only until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture steams is safer on both counts.
- Bloom before heatingSprinkle the gelatine over cold water and let it swell for five minutes before adding the boiling water, or you will be straining out lumps rather than lemon rind.
- ClaretClaret is the English name for red Bordeaux. Any dry, medium-bodied red works; avoid anything heavily oaked or jammy, as the sugar already brings 3/4 lb (about 1 3/4 cups) of sweetness.
- Lemon rindPare it in strips with no white pith and let it steep in the warm liquid, then strain. Grated zest will cloud the jelly, and clarity is the point of the dish.
- Setting and turning out"Set on ice" means the refrigerator now — 6 hours minimum, overnight for a large mould. Rinse the mould with cold water first, and to release, dip the outside in warm water for 10 seconds and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldAbout 1 3/4 quarts, serving 8 to 10. The cream is best served loosely whipped and unsweetened alongside, not poured over.
- AlcoholBecause the mixture is barely heated, most of the alcohol remains. It is not a dessert for children or anyone avoiding drink.
Wine jellies belong to the long tradition of moulded, glittering table centrepieces that ran from the eighteenth century through the Victorian dinner, when calf's-foot jelly and later commercial sheet and powdered gelatine let cooks build translucent architecture in copper moulds. Claret jelly was the standard red version, claret being the English term for the red wines of Bordeaux é... a usality generally traced to the medieval clairet, a lighter-coloured wine, long after the wines themselves had darkened. The dish also shows how much easier gelatine cookery had become; a recipe that once began with boiling calves' feet for hours now begins with an ounce of powder and half a pint of water.