FLOATING ISLAND

Six whites of eggs
Six large table-spoonfuls of jelly
A pint of cream

Put the jelly and white of egg into a pan, and beat it together with a whisk, till it becomes a stiff froth, and stands alone. Have ready the cream, in a broad shallow dish. Just before you sent it to table, pile up the froth in the centre of the cream.

From Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats by "A Lady of Philadelphia" (Eliza Leslie), Philadelphia, 1828.

Comment: This would have been a pleasant dish for an afternoon tea at which a guest you wished to impress would be attending. It could be made today in no time flat with the benefit of electric mixers, were it not for the tragic fact that just as such utensils were becoming commonplace, the custom of afternoon tea rather faded into oblivion. Beating jelly into egg whites to the point where they form a "stiff froth" was a considerable amount of labor when it had to be done entirely by hand.

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