Ingredients: Half a box of gelatine soaked in half a pint of water, juice of five large lemons, two cupfuls of loaf-sugar, or sugar to taste, beaten white and shell of an egg, one and a half pints of boiling water.
Soak the gelatine in the half-pint of water half an hour. Rub several of the pieces of the sugar on the peel of the lemon, to soak the oil on the surface. Pour a pint and a half of boiling water on the soaked gelatine, and add lemon-juice, sugar, and egg; let it come to a boil, then set it at the side of the range a few moments; skim carefully, and pass through the jelly-bag into molds.
This is made with any kind of jelly; however, jelly made with Champagne or sherry is preferable. Any of the delicate fruits of the season, such as grapes, cherries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, currants (on their stems), plums, and orange sections, or preserved fruits, such as brandied cherries, peaches, etc., are tastefully imbedded in the jelly, so as to show their forms and colors to best advantage. A fine bunch of Hamburg or of Malaga grapes is exceedingly pretty, incorporated whole into a clear Champagne jelly; it should be suspended with a small thread in the centre of the jelly-mold, and the jelly poured in when quite cold, although not set. The bunches of grapes are in this way much more easily imbedded than other fruits. In the latter case, the mold is placed on ice; a little jelly is poured in, and, when set, some fruits are arranged in a circle, or according to taste; more jelly poured in, and left to harden again; more fruit added, and thus continued until the mold is full.
Do not heat the jelly a second time; merely keep it in a warm place, awaiting that on the ice to harden.
Jelly is sometimes formed in a mold with a cylindrical tube in the centre; the open space in the centre is then filled with whipped cream. Then, to be still more fanciful, the whipped cream may be dotted with strawberries, or any kind of preserved fruits, such as cherries, grapes, cuts of peaches, etc., etc.
Then there is ribbon jelly, or jelly made in two colors, in this way: Half of a Champagne or sherry jelly is colored quite red with a few drops of prepared cochineal; a little pale jelly is poured into the mold, and, when set, a layer of the red jelly is poured carefully over it, and so continued until the mold is filled with alternate layers of the two colors.