Medieval Jellies (or Aspic)

The oldest recipes for “jellies”—gelatin-based savory dishes—date to the early 1400s. In them, collagen-rich pig’s ears and feet were boiled and then filtered into special bags. These early gelatin dishes offered medieval diners a novel form and shape-shifting texture coupled with a means of temporarily holding off spoilage for the jelly-encased meats and vegetables. Since most Catholics abstained from meat on Fridays, late-medieval cooks developed fish jellies, usually made from eels boiled in fish-stock fortified with the swim-bladders (internal stabilizing organs) of fish like cod. It wasn’t until the end of the medieval era that the family of jellies came to include clarified sweet treats of various degrees of rubberiness. Some of these were stabilized not by gelatin but by pectin, which is found in the cell walls of all fruits. The gummier ones often got their gel from isinglass, a food additive from Russia comprised of nearly pure gelatin from the swim bladders of Beluga sturgeons.

The word frequently used in the middle ages for a jelly was galentine, sometimes gillys. In the Forme of Cury (1390), jellies meant jellied meat. In the Propre new Book of Cookery (1575) we find directions for a wine jelly. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, pains were taken to clarify jellies of calves' feet or isinglass and in "running" them into glasses in colored stripes or ribbons. The practice of turning them out of molds is more recent.

Perfectly transparent jellies were especially sought after. On fast days, jellies were made of fish. The fish would often be cooked in wine and a little vinegar, then removed. The cooking liquid would be strained, reduced to one-third and seasoned with spices. The liquid would then be cooled and poured over the fish.

Expensive ingredients and elaborate moulds turned jelly into something extraordinary. They are a flexible dish that can take on certain aspects of many ingredients. They can be clear; they can be opaque. The addition of cream can add a creamy flavour and a silkier texture. Obviously powdered gelatin was not available. Hart's horn, calves' feet and isinglass (an expensive ingredient imported from Russia, made from the stomachs of sturgeon) were used to obtain the desired "jell". Clear jellies required additional work, having to be filtered through the "jelly bag" to remove any pulp or fibers that might cloud the jelly.

Savory jellies, or aspics, have been a standby for centuries. Le Viandier, a 14th century French cookbook contains a recipe for aspic. The fact that a meat broth could become a jelly with cooling (thanks to the collagen in bones and cartilage) made all kinds of things possible. A wide variety of meat, poultry, eggs and fish have been served in this way. A very popular dish was jellied eel, which became popular in English cuisine in the 18th century. Eels produced a broth that jelled easily. In the Regency era, Careme (18th century), a famous French chef who at one point was employed by the Prince Regent, invented a dish called Chaud Froid (hot cold) which was prepared hot but eaten cold, which apparently included aspic.

Forme of Cury (1390)

GELE [1] OF FYSSH. C. I.
Take Tenches, pykes [2], eelys, turbut and plays [3], kerue hem to pecys. scalde hem & waische hem clene. drye hem with a cloth do hem in a panne do þerto half vyneger & half wyne & seeþ it wel. & take the Fysshe and pike it clene, cole the broth thurgh a cloth into a erthen panne. do þerto powdour of pep and safroun ynowh. lat it seeþ and skym it wel whan it is ysode dof [4] grees clene, cowche fisshes on chargeours & cole the sewe thorow a cloth onoward & serue it forth.

[1] Gele. Jelly. Gelee, Contents here and in the next Recipe.
    Gely, Ms. Ed. No. 55, which presents us with much the same
    prescription.
[2] It is commonly thought this fish was not extant in England till
    the reign of H. VIII.; but see No. 107. 109. 114. So Lucys, or Tenchis,
    Ms. Ed. II 1. 3. Pygus or Tenchis, II. 2. Pikys, 33 Chaucer, v. Luce;
    and Lel. Coll. IV. p. 226. VI. p. 1. 5. Luce salt. Ibid. p. 6. Mr.
    Topham's Ms. written about 1230, mentions Lupos aquaticos five
    Luceas amongst the fish which the fishmonger was to have in his shop.
    They were the arms of the Lucy family so early as Edw. I. See also
    Pennant's Zool. III. p. 280, 410.
[3] Plays. Plaise, the fish.
[4] Dof, i.e. do of.

GELE OF FLESSH. C. II.
Take swyner feet & snowter and the eerys [1]. capouns. connynges calues fete. & wiasche hem clene. & do hem to seeþ in the þriddel [2] of wyne & vyneger and water and make forth as bifore.

[1] Eerys. Ears. [2] Thriddel. V. ad No. 67.

XXXVI. FOR TO MAKE METE GELEE [1] THAT IT BE WEL CHARIAUNT.
Tak wyte wyn and a party of water and safroun and gode spicis and flesch of Piggys or of Hennys or fresch Fisch and boyle them togedere and after wan yt ys boylyd and cold dres yt in dischis and serve yt forthe.

[1] meat jelly.
Note: chargeant (also: charchant, charchaunt, charchaut, chargeaunt, charghaunt, chariaud, chariaunt) : Very thick. Chargeant seems to be somewhere between "thick" and "stonding" in consistency.

Le Viandier (1395)

70. Jelly of slimy fish, and of meat. Cook it in wine, verjuice and vinegar. Some add a bit of water. Take ginger, cassia, cloves, grains of paradise and long pepper, steep in your broth, strain through cheesecloth, and boil with your meat. Take bay leaves, spike lavender, galingale and mace, tie in your cheesecloth (without washing it) with the dregs of the other spices, and boil with your meat. Cover it while it is on the fire, but when it is off the fire, skim it until it is set out. When it is cooked, [strain] your broth into a clean wooden dish until it is settled. Put your meat on a white cloth. If it is fish, peel and clean it, and throw your peelings in the broth until it is strained the last time. Make sure your broth is clear and clean. 27 Now set your meat out in bowls. Put your broth back on the fire in a clear and clean dish, boil it, and while it is boiling throw it on your meat. Sprinkle cassia flowers and mace over the plates or bowls where you put your meat and broth, and put your plates in a cold place to set. If you wish to make jelly, you do not need to sleep. If your broth is not very clean and clear, strain it through two or three layers of white cloth. On your meat, if it is fish, put crayfish tails and feet, and cooked loach.

Propre new Book of Cookery (1575)

To make cleare Jeally
Take two calves feete and a shoulder of Veale, and set it upon the fyre in a fayre pot with a gallon of water, and a galon of claret wine, then let it boyle tyl it be Jelly, and then take it up, and straine it, and put thereto Cinnamon, ginger and suger, and a litle turnesole to colour it after your discretion