Victorian Jelly: Commercial Gelatin

Victorian Jelly: Commercial Gelatin

Credit goes to a Victorian-era inventor for out-of-a-box gelatin. What an amazing labor-saving invention! Until now, wives and daughters everywhere had been making gelatin out of pigs feet and a good deal of elbow grease.

How did nineteenth century scientists manage to capture the essence of gelatin and put it in a box? And how much did it cost?

Victorian Jelly: Desserts

Victorian Jelly: Desserts

Victorians (in every English-speaking nation) adored jellied desserts.

Vintage recipes from cookbooks and newspapers (from both sides of the Atlantic) illustrate how cooks made foods gel.

A Victorian Menu for New Year’s Day, 1892

A Victorian Menu for New Year’s Day, 1892

This menu was posted in 1892 in a Pittsburgh, PA newspaper, but not the instructions– which those of us who are amused by history and cooking and the way things once were may well find fascinating. So this article is all about that menu… and how the home cook may have accomplished such a daunting task to celebrate the FIRST big holiday of the year.