[Sca-cooks] Almond Jello (was Period Foods: How to Fake It!)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 4 Dec 2003, at 17:54, Susan Fox-Davis wrote:


> > Oddly enough, I recently came across a period German recipe that one might
> > call almond jello.  It's a gelatin dish made with almond milk and isinglass,

> Can you get Isinglass anymore, or do I have to go catch the right kind of
> fish for their bladders?  <double icky!>

First, let me reassure you that a fish's swimbladder contains air, and not... 
icky things.  It helps the fish float.  I think that isinglass can still be obtained. 
 It's used in brewing and vintning to clarify liquids.  If you want to catch your 
own, I believe you want sturgeon.

I would be inclined to use gelatin.  Chemically, it's pretty much the same 
thing, only it's derived from mammals instead of fish.  There are period 
recipes that use animal gelatin for thickening, though they did it by boiling 
bones and hooves and such.
 
> Selene Colfox


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net