Imperial Table Jelly

Gelatin dishes were haute cuisine in late 19th-century America, a culinary status symbol for those with the means (read: kitchen staff) necessary for the laborious, time-intensive process to extract gelatin from animal parts and transform it into a shimmering molded dish. Housewives were keen for a way to serve gelatin on their own tables, without all the fuss of preparation—and industrialists were equally eager to meet this demand.

While Peter Cooper's Clarified Gelatine and other companies were manufacturing dried and powdered gelatin, confection company E. C. Rich, Inc. experimented with a distinctly different delivery method: a stiff, sugar-coated cake of concentrated jelly, intended to be dissolved in hot water and then set in a mold. The company showcased their product, called Imperial Table Jelly, at an 1891 New York City food exhibition to enthusiastic reviews:

...the Imperial Table Jelly [..] was the chief attraction, and was sampled by thousands and bought by everyone who sampled it. It is a package of the finest imported gelatine, so skillfully prepared with sugar and other pure ingredients that by simply dissolving the package in hot water and setting it in a cool place a mould of pure, delicious jelly, clear as crystal, is at once in readiness for use. footnote

Originally available in orange, lemon, and raspberry flavors, footnote E. C. Rich, Inc. quickly offered additional varieties of Imperial Table Jelly, including vanilla, peach, and red currant. footnote They would also introduce a wine-based product line called Rich's Imperial Wine Jellies, which came in Sherry, Port, Madeira, and English Punch flavors; the New York Times noted it was "unusually delicious". footnote