Victorian Jelly

I'm still hard at work on the book proposal but I found time this weekend to take a break from writing and get into the kitchen. I recently finished Fannie's Last Supper by Christopher Kimball. You may recognize him and his bow-tie from PBS airings of America's Test Kitchen. Or not, if you aren't a nerd.

Anyways, the book is about recreating one crazy High Victorian dinner party using recipes from the Fannie Farmer cookbook. Seeing as how both Ms. Farmer and Mr. Kimball live/d in Boston it was an interesting read both from a historical and foodie perspective.

There are lots of great descriptions of food and recipes from Fannie's time, but it was the chapter on jellies that caught my eye. There were a number of yummy-sounding gelatins and though some of the more disgusting concoctions of the 1950s have given these trembling towers a bad rep, they really can be quite intricate and delicious. I decided to keep things simple with the recipe for a layered lemon jelly.

Though packets of gelatin had already been in use for some time during the turn of the century, Kimball and Co. went the old fashioned route for this recipe and made calf's foot jelly, then sweetened and colored it accordingly. I did no such thing and readily substituted a packet of Knox gelatin. Lemon jelly on its own sounded rather boring, so I added some fresh raspberries to the mix.

2 envelopes Gelatin

1 1/2 cup lemon juice

2 cups water

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 container fresh raspberries

yellow food coloring

red/blue food coloring

1. Combine gelatin, the lemon juice, water and sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is melted.

2. Divide the gelatin into separate bowls and color as desired (if you want a deeper shade red, I suggest adding a drop of blue food coloring). Pour into chilled jelly mold. Let each layer set completely before adding the next.

Before

*Since I don't own a fancy jelly mold (yet) I substituted a glass bowl. Make sure you oil it a bit before adding jelly for easier removal.

*I added the raspberries to the middle layer, but do as you wish.

*If the jelly seems too loose mix another packet with some hot water and add it in. I'll admit I had a bit of trial and error with this recipe since I wasn't using calf's foot jelly, so if this isn't precise I apologize.

After

This photo reminds me a bit of The Blob, but does a nice job of showcasing the layers

For more Victorian recipes and info on the book check out www.fannieslastsupper.com