4 calf’s feet, cleaned carefully.
4 quarts of water.
1 pint of wine.
3 cups of sugar—or sweeten to taste.
Whites of 3 eggs, well beaten.
2 teaspoonfuls of nutmeg.
Juice of 1 lemon, and half the grated peel.
Boil the calf’s feet in the water until it is reduced one half; strain
the liquor, and let it stand ten or twelve hours. Skim off every
particle of the fat, and remove the dregs; melt slowly in a porcelain
or bell-metal kettle, add the seasoning, sugar, and the whipped whites
of the eggs, and boil fast about twelve minutes, skimming well. Strain
through a double flannel bag suspended between the four legs of an
upturned high stool or backless chair, the bowl set beneath. Do not
squeeze or shake it, until the jelly ceases to run freely; then slip
out the bowl, and put under another, into which you may gently press
what remains. The first will be the clearer jelly, although the second
dripping will taste quite as well. Wet your moulds, put in the jelly,
and set in a cool place.
There are still some housekeepers who insist that the jellies made
from the modern gelatine are not comparable in beauty and flavor to
those prepared from the genuine feet. Seeing means taste as well
as belief with them, and when they handle and behold the beloved
feet, they know what they are about. Gelatine, they will darkly and
disgustfully assert, is made of horn-shavings and hoofs and the like,
and no more fit to be used for cooking purposes than so much glue.
Nevertheless, while gelatine is so clean, bright, and convenient,
housewives who find the days now but half as long as did their mothers,
despite labor-saving machines, will turn a deaf ear to these alarmists,
and escape the tedious process above-described by using the valuable
substitute.