Jelly and fruits

Three centuries of fruit in jelly and jelly shaped as fruit.  The early receipts used a base of jelly from calves feet, issinglass or hartshorn.  One jelly using "a Gang of Calf's Feet" from 1769 is given at the end of this posting.  Powdered gelatin, created about 1840, made the process less laborious. 


In the early 1900s, Jell-O gelatin flavors were CHOCOLATE, strawberry, raspberry, lemon, orange, cherry, and peach.  Jell-O Ice Cream Powder for pudding, ice cream, sherbet, and ices came in five flavors - vanilla, strawberry, lemon, chocolate and unflavored.

Molds were made in a huge variety of shapes, described in the recipe below as "moulds made precisely in the shape and size of common oranges" or also as Bryon suggested: peaches, radishes, or snow balls. 

Fruits in Jelly - 1769

Put half a Pint of clear stiff Calf's-Foot Jelly into a Bason, when it is set and stiff, lay in three fine ripe Peaches, and a Bunch of Grapes with the Stalks up, put a few Vine Leaves over them, then fill up your Bowl with Jelly, and let it stand till the next Day; then set your Bason to the Brim in hot Water, and as soon as you find it leaves the Bason, lay your Dish over it, and turn your Jelly carefully upon it: Garnish with Flowers.  [Raffald, Elizabeth.  The Experienced English House-keeper.  Manchester: 1769]

Fruit in Jelly -  18th century

TAKE some mould jelly, made as before directed, and procure a mould, either long or round, about three inches deep. Put some jelly at the bottom of the mould, about a quarter of an inch thick. As soon as it is cold, put in ripe peaches, grapes, or any sort of ripe fruit, or preserved fruit, or China oranges cut in quarters, or in any shape you fancy. Put in a little jelly blood warm, and let it stand till it is cold, to fasten your fruit in its place, otherwise it will rise up. Then fill up your mould with blood-warm jelly, let it stand till it is thoroughly cold, then turn it into a dish, and garnish it to your fancy. These jellies look exceedingly well in a dish, if you take care to put in your fruit nicely, so as to shew it to advantage, and your jelly be very clear.  [Collingwood, Francis. The Universal Cook. London: 1792]

Orangeo, or Jelly shaped as an Orange - 19th century
Have your moulds made precisely in the shape and size of common oranges, making each one in two equal halves, which will fit very closely when put together, with the exception of a small hole at one end, that must be, to pour the jelly into the moulds. Wet them with water, to make the jelly come out smoothly, pour in your jelly, and set them by to congeal. After which, open the mould, and turn out the jelly; sprinkle the grated orange peel regularly over the moulds, wet your jelly balls with a little jelly that is luke warm, put them in the moulds, press them together, and set them in ice till the jelly and orange peel consolidates; then turn them out into a glass dish.  [Bryan, Lettice, The Kentucky Housewife. Cincinnati: 1839]

Jell-O Fruit Salad  - c1910

"Jell-O is not Gelatine. Do not confuse Jell-O with gelatin, for they are not the same. There is gelatin in Jell-O, but Jell-O is a prepared dessert and gelatin is not. Jell-O contains the different ingredients required to make the usual dessert."

My previous post on Mrs. Charles Darwin's recipes HERE included a Chocolate Cream [blanc mange] using unflavored gelatin, and a Nesselrode Pudding [like tutti frutti ice cream].  It is interesting that an early flavor of both Jell-O gelatine and ice cream powder was chocolate.  The Jell-O booklet from the 1910s included the first picture of its' Tutti Frutti Ice Cream. 



Another form of fruit in jelly was to layer jellies in an orange rind.  Several recipes are HERE

To make Calves Foot Jelly.  1769

Put a Gang of Calf's Feet well cleaned into a Pan, with fix Quarts of Water, and let them boil gently 'till reduced to two quarts, then take out the Feet, scum off the Fat clean, and clear your Jelly from the Sediment, beat the whites of five Eggs to a Froth, then add one Pint of Lisbon, Madeira, or any pale made Wine, if you chuse it, then squeeze in the Juice of three Lemons; when your Stock is boiling, take three Spoonfuls of it, and keep stirring it with your Wine and Eggs to keep it from curdling, then add a little more Stock, and still keep stirring it, and then put it in the Pan, and sweeten it with Loaf Sugar to your Taste, a Glass of French Brandy will keep the Jelly from turning blue in frosty Air, put in the outer Rind of two Lemons, and let it boil one Minute all together, and pour it into a Flannel Bag, and let it run into a Bason, and keep pouring it back gently into the Bag 'till it runs clear and bright, then set your Glasses under the Bag, and cover it left Dust gets in.—If you would have the Jelly for a Fish Pond, Transparent Pudding, or Hen's Nest, to be turned out of the Mould, boil half a Pound of Isinglass in a Pint of Water, 'till reduced to one quarter, and put it into the Stock before its refined.  [Raffald, Elizabeth.  The Experienced English House-keeper.  Manchester: 1769]

 

Images are from the 1910s booklet  Jell-O: America's Most Famous Dessert in Duke University’s 'Emergence of Advertising in America' HERE

Museum: The Jell-O Gallery in Le Roy NY HERE

©2014 Patricia Bixler Reber
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