Calves'-Feet Jelly

Ingredients

• Calves'-feet jelly is sold in bottles and in moulds.
• add to it an equal quantity of boiling milk
• or half the quantity of boiling cream.
• with some green vegetable colouring
• placing fruits — such as strawberries, raspberries, currants, etc.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the jelly with boiling milk or cream.

2. 2

   For decoration, color some jelly green and fill a cucumber mold.

3. 3

   Pour arrowroot on top and set.

4. 4

   For a fruit jelly, place fruits in the jelly and turn out when set.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c (1880), page 38. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

CALVES’-FEET JELLY.— Calves’-feet jelly is sold in bottles and in moulds, flavoured with brandy and wine, and also plain. Calves’-feet jelly is strongly recommended to invalids on account of its nourishing properties. When not flavoured with brandy or wine, any flavour can lie added to it as required — brandy, sherry, vanilla, wines of every kind, and liqueurs, such as chartreuse, maraschino, etc. One very nice form of serving calves’-feet jelly for invalids is to add to it an equal quantity of boiling milk, or half the quantity of boiling cream. In this shape it forms a species of sweet bechamel sauce. By adding more milk the jelly can be formed into a beautiful custard. Very often, in cases of dyspepsia, a mixture of beef -tea and milk is recom- mended by medical men. A bottle of calves’ -feet jelly, mixed with milk, is one of the nicest forms in which this kind of nourishment can be adminis- tered. Calves’-feet jelly is also very useful, when flavoured with brandy, etc., to ornament sweets. As an in- stance, we will give the case of an arrowroot pudding (see Arrowroot). We -will take a case in which, for ex- ample, the ornament is to be the shape and colour of a cucumber, surrounded with small knobs. Take a small quan- tity of jelly, and, having melted it, fill each of the knobs in the mould with jelly by means of a spoon. Then take some of the jelly, and, with some green vegetable colouring (see Vegetable Colouring), colour suffi- cient jelly a bright green to fill the cucumber mould. Pour the arrowroot on the top, and then, when all is set, plunge the mould for a few seconds into hot water, and turn it out. The effect of the bright tops of jelly round the green cucumber on the top of a white mould is very pretty. Calves’- feet jelly, which is a pale yellow, can also be coloured pink by the addition of a little cochineal or any vegetable colouring. Care should be taken in melting jelly not to make it too hot. Calves’-feet jelly, when bought in bot- tles, will be found to be perfectly bright. If the bottle be made too hot it will cause it to become cloudy. The best method for melting jelly is to place the bottle in tepid water and to have patience to let it dissolve very gradually. By this means considerable time is saved in setting the jelly when it is wanted for that purpose, and all danger of ren- dering it cloudy is avoided. Calves’-feet jelly is often given to invalids to drink warm, but care should always be taken not to heat it beyond the point at which it is required to be drank. In summer time, when fruit is ripe and plentiful, a nice mould of jelly can be formed by placing fruits — such as strawberries, raspberries, currants, etc.

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.