After washing the sea-weed, you must drain it well, and shake the water from the sprigs. You may flavour the mixture (after it is boiled and strained) with rose-water or peach-water, stirred in at the last.
ARROW ROOT BLANC-MANGE.—
Take a tea-cup full of arrow root, put it into a large bowl, and dissolve it in a little cold water. When it is melted, pour off the water, and let the arrow root remain undisturbed. Boil in half a pint of unskimmed milk, (made very sweet with white sugar,) a beaten nutmeg, and eight or nine blades of mace, mixed with the juice and grated peel of a lemon. When it has boiled long enough to be highly flavoured, strain it into a pint and a half of very rich milk or cream, and add a quarter of a pound of sugar. Boil the whole for ten minutes; then strain it, boiling hot, over the arrow root. Stir it well and frequently till cold; then put it into moulds and let it set to congeal.
JAUNE-MANGE.—
Put two ounces of isinglass into a pint of water, and boil it till it has dissolved. Then strain it into a porcelain skillet, and add to it half a pint of white wine; the grated peel and juice of two large deep-coloured oranges; half a pound of loaf-sugar; and the yolks only of eight eggs that have been well beaten. Mix the whole thoroughly; place it on hot coals and simmer it, stirring it all the time till it boils hard. Then take it off directly, strain it, and put it into moulds to congeal.
CALVES' FOOT JELLY.
The best calves' feet for jelly are those that have had the hair removed by scalding, but are not skinned; the skin containing a great deal of glutinous matter. In Philadelphia, unskinned calves' feet are generally to be met with in the lower or Jersey market.
Boil a set of feet in four quarts of cold water; (if the feet have been skinned allow but three quarts;) they should boil slowly till the liquid is reduced to two quarts or one half the original quantity, and the meat has dropped in rags from the bone. Then strain the liquid; measure and set it away in a large earthen pan to get cold; and let it rest till next morning. Then if you do not find it a firm cake of jelly, boil it over again with an ounce of isinglass, and again set it away till cold and congealed. Remove the sediment from the bottom of the cake of jelly, and carefully scrape off all the fat. The smallest bit of fat will eventually render it dull and cloudy. Press some clean blotting paper all over it to absorb what little grease may yet remain. Then cut the cake of jelly into pieces, and put it into a porcelain kettle to melt over the fire. To each quart allow a pound of broken up loaf-sugar, a pint of Madeira wine, and a large glass of brandy; three large sticks of the best Ceylon cinnamon broken up, (if common cinnamon, use four sticks,) the grated peel and juice of four large lemons; and lastly, the whites of four eggs strained, but not beaten. In breaking the eggs, take care to separate them so nicely that none of the yellow gets into the white; as the smallest portion of yolk of egg will prevent the jelly from being perfectly clear. Mix all the ingredients well together, and put them to the jelly in the kettle. Set it on the fire, and boil it hard for twenty minutes, but do not stir it. Then throw in a tea-cup of cold water, and boil it five minutes longer; then take the kettle off the fire, and set it aside, keeping it closely covered for half an hour; this will improve its clearness. Take a large white flannel jelly-bag; suspend it by the strings to a wooden frame made for such purposes, or to the legs of a table. Pour in the mixture boiling hot, and when it is all in, close up the mouth of the bag that none of the flavour may evaporate. Hang it over a deep white dish or bowl, and let it drip slowly, but on no account squeeze the bag, as that will certainly make the jelly dull and cloudy. If it is not clear the first time, empty the bag, wash it, put in the jelly that has dripped into the dish, and pass it through again. Repeat this till it is clear. You may put it into moulds to congeal, setting them in a cold place. When it is quite firm, wrap a cloth that has been dipped in hot water, round the moulds to make the jelly turn out easily. But it will look much better, and the taste will be more lively, if you break it up after it has congealed, and put it into a glass bowl, or heap it in jelly glasses. Unless it is broken, its sparkling clearness shows to little advantage.
After the clear jelly has done dripping, you may return the ingredients to the kettle, and warm them over again for about five minutes. Then put them into the bag (which you may now squeeze hard) till all the liquid is pressed out of it into a second dish or bowl. This last jelly cannot, of course, be clear, but it will taste very well, and may be eaten in the family.