Almond Milk and Port Leech

Renaissance (16th Century England). Lactose Free. Gluten free

Jelly and Aspic Experiments Part I

​"A gilded leche, leech or leach was served at Henry VIII's Garter Feast at Windsor in 1520, appearing in both the first and second courses. This rosewater-flavoured jelly featured as a chessboard with the 'black' squares gilded. Leach continued to be a favourite dish at other Garter Feasts until the seventeenth century. Leech was closely related to 'ribband jelly', a jelly moulded in multi-coloured layers, (ribbons), also popular in Tudor times." The Tudor Cookbook: From Gilded Peacock to Calves' Feet Pie By Terry Breverton

I was inspired by this Garter Feast, as told to me by Master Drake and Mistress Acacia, to create my own checkerboard. My practice run was more successful than the one I produced for the feast (a bit of a disaster as the jelly lost cohesion although it still tasted good!) as everything should be done in a cool room and remain well refrigerated to be successful. 
 
I didn't use a recipe as jelly flavours are fairly easy to create if you remember the following:

• Check how much jelly your gelatine will make – mine was 12 sheets to 1 litre of jelly
• Alcohol needs more gelatine – usually half as much again as other fluids (can be more or less depending on the strength of the alcohol
• You lose a lot of flavour when setting jelly so what will taste a bit overpowering as when at room temp, will lose flavour when chilled 

 
Ingredients
Almond Milk Jelly

• 10 gelatine sheets
• 750 mils chilled Almond milk
• 80g white sugar

Port Wine Jelly

• 12 gelatine Sheets
• 300 mils room temp cherry juice
• 450 mils room temp tawny port or cherry liquor/port
• 40g white sugar

 Method

• Prepare a 23-25cm/9-10 inch square plastic container (or other square mould) by oiling the inside with olive oil or cold butter.

Almond Milk Jelly

• Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for one to two minutes, separating each one before putting it in the dish (you can put them on top of each other and all must be submerged). This is called blooming the gelatine. The result should be floppy gelatine sheets.
• In a very small saucepan slowly heat (using medium to low heat) 50-100mils of the almond milk. It should not be boiled, just hot.
• Add the gelatine sheets one by one, dissolving each before adding the next.
• Dissolve the sugar by adding a little at a time and stirring until all is dissolved.
• Take saucepan off the heat, pour into a Pyrex jug and pour the remaining cold almond milk in and stir
• Carefully pour the mixture into the prepared plastic container and refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes until just set.

Pot wine jelly

• Bloom the gelatine.
• In a very small saucepan slowly heat (using medium to low heat) 50-100mils of the cherry juice It should not be boiled, just hot.
• Add the gelatine sheets one by one, dissolving each before adding the next.
• Dissolve the sugar by adding a little at a time and stirring until all is dissolved.
• Take saucepan off the heat, pour into a Pyrex jug and pour the remaining room temperature cherry juice in, then pour the port in and stir.
• Carefully remove the mould from the fridge and pour the port mixture in taking care to minimise the bubbles.
• If the finished pour has too many bubbles, carefully skim the top off.
• Put in the fridge for 5-10 minutes and skim the top again if the bubbles haven’t disappeared.
• Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.

Unmoulding

• Prepare hot (not boiling) water in a sink or tray and submerge bottom of mould for a few seconds. Jiggle and see if the jelly is coming away from the sides. Repeat until it does. Don’t be tempted to rest the jelly in the hot water as it will dissolve the jelly.
• Unmould by putting the final tray/plate on top of the container and flipping it upside down.
• Cut off any curved corners and cut jelly into 64 equal squares an inch wide (you will have off cuts this allows you to make the sides of the jelly clean and square. I used a sterilised quilting set square to do this.
• Flip alternate squares to make the checkerboard.
• Cover with plastic wrap or the upside down container and refrigerate.

Sources:
How to Milk an Almond, Stuff an Egg, And Armor a Turnip: A Thousand Years of Recipes by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook 1988
How to make Almond Milk (p7)
“Almond milk is an ingredient common in Medieval European recipes, particularly in Lenten dishes (milk, eggs, and meat broth all being forbidden in Lent). The recipe below is a basic one. For some recipes we make a thicker almond milk with more almonds relative to the amount of water; other recipes say “draw up a good milk of almonds with broth (or wine),” in which case the broth or wine is substituted for the water in making the almond milk. To make almond milk: Take ¼ c (1 ¾ oz) almonds. Put them in a food processor, run it briefly. Add a little water, run it longer. Continue adding water and running the processor until you have a milky liquid. Strain through several layers of cheesecloth. Put the residue back in the food processor, add a little more water, and repeat. Continue until the residue produces almost no more milk. Throw out the residue. This should give you about 1 c of almond milk.”  
Notes:

• c stands for cup
• I have not tried this recipe yet

Cookit History Cookbook: Almond Leech
"Take a quart of almond milk and three ounces of gelatine, half a pond of beaten sugar; stir them together. Let it  be thick. Then strain it with three spoonfuls of rosewater. Then put it into a platter and let it cool, and cut it in squares. Lay it fair in dishes, and lay gold upon it." Original source is Sir Hugh Plat’s Delights for Ladies, 1602

and The Tudor Kitchen: What the Tudors Ate & Drank By Terry Breverton
"Leach of Almonds
Ingredients: 1 cup almond milk, 1 ½ tbsp. of sugar, ¼ cup cream; tbsp. rosewater; ½ tbsp. gelatine."
"Milk Jelly
1 pint fully fat milk or almond milk; 2-3 leaves of gelatine; 2 oz sugar"
"Wine Jelly
¼ pint red wine or grape juice; 1 leaf of gelatine, 5-6 rose petals or a little rosewater."