The girl's own cookery book

Cornflour blanc-mange is very wholesome and inexpensive ; and when it is put on a bright clear glass dish, and pleasantly flavoured, and served with a good compote of fruit, it is a preparation by no means to be despised. XVIII. HOW TO MAKE JELLY. In all the talks we have had together about cookery, we have never said anything about making jelly. Yet this is very interesting work, and very easy when we once know how to do it. I think, therefore, it will be well for us to give our attention to-day to this subject. Jelly is usually made nowadays either from calves’ feet or from gelatine. The process is easier when the latter is used, but it is generally believed that the jelly is more nourishing when calves’ feet are employed. There is a good deal of doubt at the present time as to the value of gelatine as food. I daresay you have noticed that people think and speak very differently about food now to what they did a few years ago. Formerly they used to eat what was set before them, and satisfy their hunger and be done with it. But now they take every- How to Make Jelly. 109 thing to pieces as it were. They calculate what proportion of the food will make flesh, what will make bone, and what will give warmth or force. They cannot cat a mutton chop comfortably without thinking what effect it will have on their constitution, and wondering whether they would not have done better to have had a rump steak instead. This is quite a step in the right direction, and I am not going to say a word against it. I think it is most necessary that those who have to prepare food should understand its nature and value, so that they may procure what is wholesome and nourishing. At the same time, take what pains we may, we are obliged to confess our ignorance every now and again. The wisest man in the world knows comparatively little of what there is to be known. When wise men are in doubt on a subject, ordinary folks will not err very greatly if they trust a little to instinct and custom. In the case of food we may call instinct healthy appetite. Healthy appetite led people to take bread with butter, and beans with bacon, long before science confirmed the custom, and said that these were just the things that ought to go together. People who have a healthy appetite enjoy a little jelly now and then ; and therefore, though we cannot say it is valuable from a nourishing point of view, there cannot be much harm in our making it, and serving them with it occasionally. We will not value it too highly, we will not give it and nothing else to invalids, and trust to it to restore their strength and power ; but we will take it in moderation, and believe that as we enjoy it, it will do us good, even though we cannot say to what extent it will benefit us. Jelly made from calves’ feet, though more nourishing is more expensive, and takes longer to make than when gelatine is used, because the calves’ feet stock has to be made the day before the jelly. Gelatine, on the contrary, only needs to be dissolved before the jelly is made ; and as the after process is the same in both cases, I will first describe how calves’ feet stock should be made, and then say what should be done to make the jelly clear and bright. We will suppose that we wish to make a quart of stock. We take two calves’ feet, the price of which is uncertain.