“Cleared” Jellies

“Cleared” jelly is filtered through a foam of coagulated egg whites and crushed egg-shells. The pan, whisk and metal jelly-mould to be used must first be scalded. The egg whites are lightly whisked until liquid, then added with the washed and crushed egg-shells to the cooled jelly. The mixture is heated steadily and whisked constantly until a good head of foam is produced, and the contents of the pan are hot, but not quite boiling. The albumen in the egg-whites and egg-shells coagulates, forming a thick crust of foam. The correct temperature is reached when the foam begins to set, and care must be taken not to break up, by whisking too long, a completely coagulated foam. The whisk is removed, and heating continued to allow the foam crust to rise to the top of the pan. The heat is then lowered and the contents of the pan left to settle in a warm place, covered with a lid, for 5–10 min. The jelly is then poured through a scalded jelly cloth while the cloth is still hot, into a scalded bowl below. The bowl of strained jelly is replaced with another scalded bowl, and the jelly re-strained very carefully by pouring through the foam crust which covers the bottom of the cloth and acts as a filter.