[Sca-cooks] RE:Mint Milk Jellies

[Cindy M. Renfrow]

Robert May's The Accomplisht Cook (1660), pp.202-203, gives instructions
for "Other Jelly for service of several colors". The colors are saffron for
yellow, cochneal mixed with alum for red,  turnsole for blue, and plain for
white. These are clear colored jellies. He has some interesting serving
suggestions, including setting the jelly in half a hollow lemon peel or in
winkle shells.

Another recipe on pp 205-206 uses powdered blanched almonds mixed with
rosewater and isinglass and wine, among other things. He colors this blue,
yellow, or green, & mixes some with candied lemon rinds, colored almond
paste, and some with cheese curds.

A third on p. 206 uses cream instead of almonds, and also gives the option
of coloring the jelly.

For an earlier source of colored jelly, Le Menagier has a meat jelly
(Power, pp. 279-280) colored yellow with saffron, and a blue jelly colored
with turnsole & garnished with gold & silver.

Cindy

>One (late) period source:
>
>"A white leach", in Dawson, "The good huswifes Jewell, pt. 2".
>
>"Take a quart of newe milke, and three ounces weight of Isinglasse, half a
>pounde of beaten suger, and stirre them together, and let it boile half a
>quarter of an hower till it be thicke, stirring them al the while: then
>straine it with three sponfull of Rosewater, then put it into a platter and
>let it coole, and cut it in squares. Lay it faire in dishes, and lay golde
>upon it."
>
>Regards,
>Thomas L.