In the seaweed, Agar Agar, which comes from the rocky coasts of the East India islands, we have a most delightful vegetable gelatine. Besides being clean and pure and sweet, it is inexpensive. An ounce of Agar Agar will solidify from two to four times as much liquid as an ounce of animal gelatine. The method of its use is very simple.

Directions

Pour water that feels quite hot to the finger over the gelatine and let it stand covered in a warm place for an hour or longer. When ready to use, drain and to the hot water drained off add sufficient boiling water to make 4 cups (1 qt.) for each ounce of gelatine. Pour over gelatine and cook (taking care that it does not boil over) in covered vessel until clear, which will be in not over 2 or three minutes if the gelatine was well soaked.

For fruit juices and nearly all liquids, 1 oz. is sufficient for 16 cups (4 qts.), including the water in which it was boiled. The exceptions will be noted in the recipes. This proportion makes that delicate, quaking jelly always so desirable.

In warm weather a little more gelatine may be required, and the proportions vary slightly with different qualities of gelatine.

Secrets of Success

Keep cooked gelatine warm by setting dish in hot water (may be cooked in inner cup of double boiler, then set into outer boiler) until ready to use.

Leave molds quite wet. Set in cold room or on ice or in ice water. When cold surroundings are not obtainable, use a smaller proportion of liquid. Do not unmold until just before serving time.

If for any reason gelatine becomes solidified or partly so after boiling, before molding, boil it up again as nothing less than boiling heat will make it smooth.

When the gelatine is to be cooked in stock or milk, do not have water for soaking quite so hot.

Unless a very transparent jelly is desired, straining after cooking is unnecessary with a good quality of gelatine. The very cheapest quality may require several strainings but I question the economy of its use. Strain, if at all, through a double thickness of cheese cloth (wrung out of hot water) into a hot vessel.

Pour cooked gelatine into liquid all at once, stir just enough to mix well, and turn immediately into molds. Do not stir while cooling.

For freezing, use ?–½ less of gelatine and ? more of sugar in recipes.

To unmold jelly, run a thin bladed knife around the edge carefully, when necessary; turn the dish on which it is to be served over it and invert quickly; shake gently. If the mold was not drained too much, there will be no necessity for using a warm, wet cloth or warm water to loosen jelly.

Use jellies with fresh pineapple the day they are prepared.

When whipped cream is used, add all or a part of the sugar to it before mixing it with the other ingredients.

The whites of the eggs must be beaten with all or nearly all of the sugar of the recipe to combine well.

If directions are followed carefully, vegetable gelatine desserts will be found among the easiest to prepare, as well as very delightful.

The recipes are all for Agar Agar or gelatine in bulk.

In each recipe, the quantity of water in which the gelatine is to be cooked immediately follows it.

Fruit Jellies

The simplest and most desirable of gelatine desserts are the molds made of fruit juices, either of one variety alone, or of harmonious combinations such as red raspberry and currant, strawberry and currant, strawberry and pineapple, and grape and peach (¼ grape and ¾ peach). Cherry, cranberry, gooseberry, apricot and orange are among the many juices suitable for jellies.

The fruit itself cut fine may sometimes be used in connection with the juice, pineapple especially.

The addition of lemon juice gives character to nearly all fruits. Add water and sugar to make not too rich.

Jellies may be served plain, with fruit juices, or with whipped cream or custard; or with egg or whipped cream sauce.

When obtainable, the fruit and leaves of the fruit used in the jelly make suitable decorations.

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups fruit juice

The water is that in which the gelatine is to be cooked. Prepare the juice, cook the gelatine (after soaking) and pour it, all at once, into the juice. Stir just enough to mix well and pour into molds. This quantity will make about 12 good sized individual molds.

Delicate Lemon Jelly

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup lemon juice
• large ¾ cup sugar
• 2½ cups water

Fruit and Mint Jelly

Make delicate lemon jelly with 1 cup of sugar. Pour some of it into the bottom of a mold, keeping the remainder hot. When cold, but hardly beginning to set, drop small pieces of grape fruit pulp into it and sprinkle with shredded fresh mint. Cover with more jelly. Next, place a layer of slices of red skinned apples around the edge with another sprinkling of mint. Have the next layer of green skinned apples, and finally cover with jelly. Follow general directions for cooling and unmolding. Other fruits may be used.

Beets in Jelly

Layers of sliced or diced boiled red beets may be molded with lemon jelly with pleasing effect.

Orange Jelly

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup lemon juice
• 1½ cup orange juice
• 1 cup water flavored with rind of orange
• ½–? cup of sugar

Heat sugar and water together until sugar is dissolved. The orange pulp need not be strained out of the juice.

Orange or Lemon Jelly with Strawberries

Press ripe whole, or pieces of strawberries into jelly quickly when just cold and beginning to set slightly. Serve with whipped cream garnished with slices of berries. Red raspberries may be used instead of strawberries.

Jelly in Orange Cups

Orange jelly with or without fruit may be molded in cups the size of orange cups, transferred to them at serving time and finished with a meringue or a fluff or with whipped cream.

? Wedding Breakfast Salad

• ? oz. gelatine
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup pineapple juice
• ? cup lemon juice
• ? cup water
• ?–1 cup sugar
• 2 small oranges
• 2–3 bananas
• 1 cup very dry shredded pineapple

Heat the sugar and water together, remove from fire, add the lemon and pineapple juice and gelatine; then the fruit which has been cut into small pieces. Put into molds and set on ice. Use the day it is made. Serve plain or with whipped cream.

I once saw this salad served with two orange cups tied together with baby ribbon the color of the bride’s dress, having the whipped cream piled in one cup and the jelly cut into cubes in the other.

Of course the jelly should be cut just before serving.

Red Jelly with Fruit

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• scant 3 cups cranberry juice
• ¾–1 cup sugar
• 4–6 drops lemon extract

Stew berries in an equal quantity of water and strain for juice. Pour half of liquid into mold. Let it set slightly, keeping the remaining half hot. Cover with shredded or cut fruit (oranges, bananas, pineapple, well drained canned pears or peaches) and pour remainder of liquid over. Allow jelly to become very firm. Serve with garnish of whipped cream or rich meringue flavored with lemon or rose. Dark red cherry and lemon juice make a most delightful jelly without the flavorings.

? Orange Garnish for Salad or Cold EntrÉe

Cut a small hole in one end of as many oranges as desired. Carefully scoop out the pulp, leaving the rinds whole. Soak in cold water an hour or more. Drain and wipe dry on the inside, then leave in cold place until well dried.

Make a jelly in the proportion of—

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 1? cup cranberry juice
• 5 tablespns. lemon juice
• ? cup sugar
• (or the same quantity of liquid, using cherry and lemon juice)

When nearly cold, carefully fill cups, harden, and at serving time cut the oranges in sixths or eighths, rind and all.

Orange, lemon and other fruit jellies may be used by taking only 1¾ cup of liquid besides the water in the gelatine.

Apple Sauce Molds—very nice

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups pulp of steamed apples
• 2½–3 tablespns. lemon juice
• 1 tablespn. sugar

Serve with egg sauce, custard or whipped cream, or with blueberry or grape juice.

Orange Cream

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• ½ tablespn. lemon juice with orange juice to make ¾ of a cup
• 2–3 tablespns. sugar
• ¾ cup cream, plain or whipped

Add lemon and orange juice to cooked gelatine, and sugar to cream, then pour gelatine into cream, mixing carefully if cream is whipped. Mold.

Pineapple may be used the same, or ? pineapple and ? orange juice.

Prune Cream Mold

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• pulp of ½ lb. (24 medium sized) prunes with water enough to make 2–2½ cups
• ½ teaspn. vanilla
• 1 cup cream, whipped
• 2 tablespns. sugar

Pineapple Sponge

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup cream, plain
• ½ teaspn. vanilla
• 2 teaspns. lemon juice in cup, pineapple juice to fill the cup
• whites of 4 eggs
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tablespn. lemon juice

Beat whites of eggs stiff, add sugar and beat, chop in the lemon juice, then the cream and the pineapple juice, carefully, and lastly add the gelatine, not too warm, and put at once into molds. Some of the fruit cut fine may be used with the juice.

Lemon Snow

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• ? cup lemon juice
• 1? cup water
• whites of 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar

Beat whites of eggs stiff, add the sugar, beating well, then the lemon juice and water, slowly, chopping in lightly, then add the gelatine, not very warm.

May serve with border of grated or shredded pineapple. Make pineapple, gooseberry, grape and other fruit snows in the same way.

Sponge Pudding

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• yolks 4 eggs
• 4 tablespns. (? cup) lemon juice
• 5 tablespns. sugar
• whites 4 eggs
• 6 tablespns. sugar

Beat yolks of eggs in inner cup of double boiler and pour slowly over them the lemon juice and 5 tablespns. of sugar, hot, not boiling; cook like custard, cool; chop into whites of eggs which have been stiffly beaten with the 6 tablespns. of sugar, and add the gelatine, not very warm. Serve with unflavored, whipped cream or with grape juice.

Soak gelatine in warm water, drain and cook in part of the milk in the inner cup of a double boiler (let stand in the outer boiler until well heated, then boil carefully over the fire). When the gelatine is dissolved, remove from the fire, add sugar, then the cold milk and lastly, the vanilla. Mold. Serve with cream or any desired sauce.

Cocoanut Blanc Mange

Flavor milk with cocoanut and proceed as in gelatine blanc mange. Serve with rich blueberry juice, or with cream or custard.

? Rice Charlotte

• ? oz. gelatine
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup rice
• 1½ cup milk
• 2–2½ tablespns. sugar
• ½ cup cream
• flavoring

After boiling rice in salted water 20 m. to ½ hr. drain and cook in milk in double boiler 1 hr. Add water to that drained from the rice to make ½ cup, which add with sugar, flavoring and gelatine to rice when partly cooled. Lastly, mix whipped cream in lightly and mold. Serve alone or with cream, plain or whipped, with orange egg cream sauce or fruit sauce and halves of nuts. When serving with fruit sauces omit flavorings.

If desired richer, 1 cup only of milk may be used for cooking rice, and 1 cup cream, whipped, added. A garnish of small molds of orange or other fruit jelly around the charlotte is very pretty.

? Whipped Cream Jelly—Miss Hughes

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 1¼ cup cream
• ?–½ cup sugar

Whip cream, not too much, add sugar, then gelatine. Tint delicately with pink or green when desired, and flavor with vanilla or rose or both or with orange and vanilla sometimes; but as a rule, it is preferred without flavoring. May be served with cake or wafers and berries.

? Maple Cream

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 1? cup maple syrup
• 1? cup cream

Add syrup to gelatine, then both to whipped cream. Mold and serve with wafers.

Jellied CafÉ au Lait

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups milk in which 1½–2 tablespns. of cereal coffee have been steeped

Serve with plain or whipped sweetened cream, flavored with vanilla if desired.

Coffee Bavarian

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups strong cereal coffee
• 1 cup milk
• ? cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• ½–1 teaspn. vanilla

Strain coffee through cloth, mix with milk, sugar and eggs; cook like custard. Cool partly before adding vanilla; add gelatine and mold. Serve with unsweetened cream with cake or wafers.

Coffee Bavarian and Blanc Mange or Jellied Custard

May be molded in layers and served with a sweetened and vanilla flavored meringue or with whipped cream in roses.

? Jellied Custard

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups rich milk
• 2 eggs
• 4–6 tablespns. sugar

Cook custard, flavor if desired, add gelatine, mold. Serve with blueberry, grape or any suitable fruit juice, or with unsweetened cream, plain or whipped. Or, cook milk and yolks of eggs together, cool, add gelatine, and pour into whites beaten with sugar, chopping quickly together. Or, use ½ cup cream, whipped, instead of whites of eggs and 2½ cups of milk only.

Jellied Custard with Meringue

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups rich milk
• 4 yolks of eggs
• 4–6 tablespns. sugar
• flavoring

Cook custard and cool; add vanilla and gelatine, mold. Just before serving, beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth with 2 or 3 tablespns. of sugar (powdered preferable). Add 1½–2½ tablespns. lemon juice, and heap by spoonfuls around the base of the mold. Serve at once. If preferred, 1 cup of milk may be used to cook the gelatine in after soaking, instead of water.

Marshmallow Pudding

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• whites 3 eggs
• ½–¾ cup sugar
• ½ teaspn. vanilla

Beat whites of eggs very stiff, add sugar gradually, beating, then vanilla, lastly the warm gelatine, chopping in quickly. Mold in shallow pan. Just before serving unmold and with hot, dry knife cut into cubes. Serve with cream, custard or fruit juice or use as garnish for other dishes.

Cream of Tomato and Carrot Jelly

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 3 cups rich milk
• 1 cup strained tomato
• 2 teaspns. salt
• 2 level teaspns. sugar
• ¾ cup carrot

Soak gelatine in warm water, drain, cook in milk; add the tomato, sugar and salt with cooked carrot which has been rubbed through a fine colander, mold. Serve garnished with spinach or chervil as a cold entrÉe, with nuts and wafers. Or, mold in small molds and use as a garnish for other dishes. May flavor milk with onion or onion and garlic, straining them out after cooking gelatine.

? Tomato Jelly

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespns. lemon juice with strained tomato to make 3 cups
• 1–1½ tablespn. sugar
• 3 tablespns. chopped onion
• ¾ teaspn. celery seed, crushed, or
• ¾ cup dried celery tops, or
• 1 teaspn. celery salt
• 2–2½ teaspns. salt
• 1 tablespn. chopped parsley

Simmer all ingredients (except gelatine and parsley) together for 20 m., strain, add parsley and cooked gelatine and pour into mold. Individual molds may be served on lettuce, spinach or endive with or without improved mayonnaise dressing.

? Tomato Aspic

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups tomato juice
• 1 tablespn. sugar
• 2½ tablespns. lemon juice
• ¾–1 tablespn. salt
• ¾ teaspn. celery salt, tied in bit of muslin

Drain juice from stewed tomatoes without pressing the pulp through; add other ingredients. Simmer all together 10–15 m.; strain, add water to make 3 cups, mix with cooked gelatine and mold.

Green peas, sprays of parsley, sliced celery, or trumese or nutmese in dice (singly or in combinations) may be put in with jelly, in layers, the same as fruit, in fruit and mint jelly. Serve garnished as a cold entrÉe for luncheon or for supper or for one course at dinner. Mold in small molds sometimes and use as a garnish.

Aspic—Light

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 2¾–3 cups light stock (tinted green if desired)

If preferred pour hot stock over 2 yolks of eggs and cook and add to gelatine. May be molded in small molds for garnishing. A mold of jellied bouillon or stock surrounded with halves of nuts or delicate wafers or both, may be served in place of soup.

Bouillon for Jelly

• 1½–2½ level tablespns. raw nut butter
• ? cup chopped onion
• 1 cup strained tomato
• 2¼ level tablespns. browned flour
• 2–3 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1½ level tablespn. salt
• water

Mix browned flour, salt, nut butter and tomato, add water, onion and garlic. Cook ½–1 hour and strain. Add water for 3 pts. If cleared (p.77), there will be 1 qt. only. Use in proportion of 4 cups to the ¼ oz. of gelatine.

Light Stock for Jelly

• ¼ cup raw nut butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 level tablespn. celery seed or salt
• ¾ level teaspn. sage
• 2–2½ bay leaves
• 1¼ level tablespn. salt
• ? level teaspn. thyme
• water

Simmer ½–1 hour, strain and clear (p.77). 3½–4 cups after clearing. Use in proportion of 3¾ cups to the ¼ oz. of gelatine.

Dark Stock for Jelly

• ¼ cup raw nut butter or meal
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• ½ cup strained tomato
• 1 level teaspn. celery salt
• ½ level teaspn. sage
• ?–¼ level teaspn. thyme
• 1½ level tablespn. salt
• 1 level tablespn. browned flour
• water

Mix dry ingredients, add tomato with nut butter which has been stirred smooth with water, then onion, garlic and water. Cook ½–1 hour; strain and add water for 3 pts. This may be used uncleared, but if cleared (p.77) there will be 1 qt. only. Use in proportion of 4 cups to the ¼ oz. of gelatine.

Aspic for Garnishing

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespns. lemon juice
• cleared bouillon with it to make 1 cup

Pour into shallow mold to desired depth. Unmold and cut with hot dry knife into dice or fancy shapes just before serving.

Jellied Broth—Dark

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup water
• 1 qt. dark stock, uncleared

Mold in small cups and serve in soup plates or on small plates, surrounded with soup crackers and halves of nuts with fringed celery.

Gelatine of Trumese

Cut trumese (some nutmese also if wished) into ½–¾ in. dice. Mold with light aspic, using sprays of parsley and small button mushrooms if wished.

May serve on a bed of green, with improved mayonnaise roses.

Jellied Cream Trumese (Salad if Desired)

• ¼ oz. gelatine
• 1 cup broth—light stock without celery and bay leaves
• ¾–? cup cream
• 4–5 oz., (9 tablespns.—¾–1 cup) trumese
• salt if necessary

Add minced trumese to gelatine cooked in broth and when partly cooled, chop into whipped cream. Mold in large or small molds. Mold may be garnished with celery tops and served with wafers and stalks of celery, or garnished with fringed celery or ripe olives and parsley, the celery or olives with wafers to be served with mold.

Or, the one or individual molds may be served with improved or cream mayonnaise dressing with ripe olives or celery and wafers.

The Medical Use of Agar Agar

Quite recently the use of agar agar as a remedy for constipation has been discovered. “Life and Health” says: “Agar Agar, a vegetable gelatine prepared from East Indian seaweeds, has been given an official recommendation by the Council of Pharmacy as a remedy for constipation.”

One physician suggests cutting it into small pieces and eating it with cream as a porridge. It may also be served with fruit juices and other liquids.

The liquid should be poured over it a few minutes before serving, to moisten it sufficiently for mastication. A druggist said, however, that it might be chewed dry.