Pour the boiling water over the gelatine, stir swiftly for a moment; add the jellied “stock,” and when this is dissolved, the sugar, lemon-juice and coloring. Stir until all are mixed and melted together. Strain through a flannel bag until quite clear. Do not shake or squeeze the bag.
Have ready—4 or 5 hard-boiled eggs.
The remains of roast game, roast or boiled poultry, cut in neat thin slices, with no jagged edges, and salted slightly.
Wet a mould with cold water, and when the jelly begins to congeal, pour some in the bottom. Cut the whites of the eggs in pretty shapes—stars, flowers, leaves, with a keen penknife. If you have sufficient skill, carve the name or initials of some one whom you wish to honor. Unless you can do this, however, content yourself with smooth thin rings overlapping one another, like a chain, when they are arranged on the lowest stratum of jelly, which, by the way, should be a thin one, that your device may be visible. Pour in more jelly, and on this lay slices of meat, close together. More jelly, and proceed in this order until the mould is full, or all the meat used up.
Set in a cool place until next day, when turn out upon a flat dish.
An oblong or round mould, with smooth, upright sides, is best for this purpose.
There is no need for even a timid housekeeper to be appalled at the suggestion of attempting a task such as is described above, or below. The very minuteness with which I have detailed the by-no-means difficult process should encourage, not daunt the tyro. “Nothing venture, nothing have,” is a telling motto, in this connection.
A Tongue Jellied Whole.
Make the jelly and stock as in preceding receipt, leaving out the currant jelly, and coloring with a little burnt sugar, dissolved in cold water. This gives an amber tinge to the jelly. Should it not be clear after first straining, run it through the bag—a clean one—again.
Trim a small tongue—boiled and perfectly cold—neatly, cutting away the root and paring it skilfully from tip to root with a sharp, thin-bladed knife. Wet an oblong mould (a baking-pan used for “brick” loaves of bread will do) with cold water, and put a thin layer of the congealing jelly in the bottom. Upon this lay the tongue, bearing in mind that what is the bottom now will be the top when the jelly is turned out. Encircle it with a linked chain made of rings of white of egg, or, if you prefer, let the rings barely touch one another, and fit in the centre of each a round of bright pickled beet. The effect of this is very pretty. Fill up the mould with jelly; cover and set in a cold place for twelve hours.