18^th century

Jaune Mange

This recipe uses seville orange juice, while others recommend lemon and lemon peel. Later recipes by J.H. Walsh in The British Cookery Book (1864) instruct the cook to use sherry or ‘raisin-wine’. Because the eggs give this jaune mange a set already, you don’t need to use as much gelatine as you would for a blancmange.

Jaune Mange

Boil one ounce of isinglass three quarters of a pint of water, till melted, strain it; add the juice of two Seville oranges, a quarter of a pint of white wine, the yolks of four eggs, beaten and strained, sugar to the taste; stir it over a gentle fire till it just boils up; when cold put it into a mould or moulds; if there should be any sediment, take care not to pour it in.

Charlotte Mason, The Lady’s Assistant, 1773

Makes enough for a fancy 400 ml (14 fl oz) mould

220 ml (7½ fl oz) white wine

1 teaspoon sugar

3 egg yolks

4 gelatine leaves

juice of 2 seville oranges

In a small saucepan, bring the wine and sugar to a simmer. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Soak the gelatine leaves in the orange juice until soft.

Begin whisking the warm wine mixture into the egg yolks, followed by the soaked gelatine and juice. Allow to cool but not set, then pour into the mould and allow to set for 6 hours or overnight. The smaller the mould, the shorter the setting time.

To unmould, wet one of your hands and use it to loosen the jelly. Allow the jelly to slide out onto a wet plate (if the plate is wet, you can easily move the jelly around if necessary).