The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

LEMON JELLY. — Lemon jelly, when purchased in bottles, is always bright. Cooks know what great difficulty they experience in getting jelly perfectly bright when home-made. Undoubtedly the most convenient form of obtaining jelly is bottled, and it is to be regretted that housekeepers do not more often avail themselves of this bottled jelly instead of having the jelly home-made. Of course, when jelly is made in large quantities, the difficulty of getting it bright is infinitely less than when it is made in small quantities. The usual difficulty in brightening home-made jelly is so great, that although the cost may be small, a large quantity is wasted in clarifying, and it is therefore far more economical to buy a bottle of jelly already brightened than to make it in the house ; thus a good deal of expense, as well as much time and trouble, will be avoided. The best way to use a bottle of jelly is to plunge the bottle into warm water, but not too warm. First, there is the danger of cracking the bottle ; and, secondly, if the jelly is heated beyond a certain point, it is apt sometimes to get clouded. The cook should place the bottle in water sufficiently warm to dissolve the jelly, so as to enable her to pour it out of the bottle. The jelly can then be used for any purpose required. It can be piled up in glasses or it can be poured into a mould of any shape. It may also be altered in flavour as well as colour. The addition of a little colouring and flavouring will enable the cook to produce two moulds of jelly out of one bottle. For instance, suppose she has two small moulds. Half of the jelly can be served just as it is, or it can be flavoured by the addition of lemon-juice, essence of lemon, or any other flavouring. It must be remembered that all this is purely a matter of taste. In all preserved goods it is important that the manufacturer should never go to extremes ; consequently, when a bottle is opened, the cook who knows her master’s palate should act accordingly. Then the other half of the bottle can be flavoured altogether differently by the addition of, say, a teaspoonful of essence of vanilla, and the jelly altered in colour by the addition of a little of Breton’s colouring or a small quantity of cochineal. When the party is small, and it is known beforehand that not many persons will sit down to dinner, it is far better to have two small moulds of jelly, differing both in appearance and flavour, than to have one large one. Another point with regard to bottled jellies is that they are suitable for use either in summer or winter. Of course, the consistency of the jelly on a cold winter’s day at Christmas-time would be very different to that on a hot day in August. Cooks should therefore exercise their own discretion in adding to jelly according to the weather. When the cook has the advantage of ice she can always improve the jelly by adding a, little more wine. So, too, in winter a little wine can always be added. J elly, to be perfect, should be almost on the point of falling to pieces. Cooks should remember that it is never right to sacrifice taste to appearances. Jelly should never come to table in such a state that it has to be bitten, but, on the other hand, in such a condition that it may easily melt in the mouth. Of course, there is the danger of the mould breaking, but it is far better to hand round