Ingredients

 

Adapted from Cooking for Kings: The Life of the First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly (Walker and Company, 2003). © 2003 by Ian Kelly.

Note: This recipe is how French Chef Antonin Carême wrote it in the 19th century. We have not updated it because much of its interest is in how chefs communicated with each other then, and still do today. It certainly invites improvisation.

Boil 12 ounces of sugar in enough water to cover, add the orange flowers and remove from the heat. Allow to infuse and strain, cold, through silk. Add one ounce and two drams of isinglass and mix this and the strained syrup* into a bottle of pink champagne, previously opened. The juice of a lemon may be added, and a drop of cochineal if the colour seems weak without it; tiny drops of the dye, slightly dried out before the jelly is added, will set in a marbled effect. Set in glasses or mould with orange blossom.

*Orange flower water and gelatine may substitute.

Instructions