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To Clarify Isinglass

A method for clarifying isinglass using water and beaten egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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To Clarify Isinglass

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place 2½ ounces of isinglass into a delicately clean pan.

  2. Pour in 1 pint of spring water that has been gradually mixed with 1 teaspoonful of beaten egg white. Stir the mixture thoroughly.

Clarify

  1. Heat slowly over a gentle fire, ensuring the isinglass does not stick to the pan.

  2. After 2–3 minutes of simmering, when scum rises, skim it off.

  3. Continue skimming until no more scum appears.

  4. If the liquid volume exceeds the required amount, reduce it by quick boiling to the proper point.

  5. Strain the clarified liquid through a thin muslin.

  6. Set aside the clarified liquid for use.

Optional finishing

  1. (Optional) Mix the clarified liquid lukewarm with clear sweetened fruit juice or use it with syrup for jellies flavored with liqueurs.

  2. (Optional) If scum is laid to drain on the back of a fine sieve wetted with hot water, a little very strong jelly will drip from it.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Isinglass (in the method)
Forms a clarifying agent that gathers cloudy particles so they can be skimmed away.
Egg white
Coagulates when heated and collects impurities into scum that rises to the surface.
Spring water
Serves as the liquid being clarified, carrying the isinglass and egg white through heating.

The step that matters

Heat slowly over a gentle fire. Gentle heat keeps the isinglass from sticking to and scorching on the pan, and lets the egg white coagulate so scum rises cleanly for skimming. Vigorous boiling would break up the scum and cloud the liquid.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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