Gello Among the Roasts: A Sweet Surprise at 12th Night By Yonnie Travis, Culinary Historian and Historical Food Blogger at Give It Forth
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As a culinary historian specializing in medieval and Renaissance foodways, I bring historical jelly dessert recipes from manuscripts to modern tables. At the 12th Night 2024 feast, one such showpiece made its dramatic return—a shimmering, layered jelly known in the kitchen as "gello." This dish paid tribute to a Renaissance feast jelly dish found in Scappi's Opera and Romoli's banquet menus. This post examines the 16th-century gelatin preparation and its cultural significance. It offers a modern version of Scappi's gelatin recipe for you to try at home.
Historical Context: Jelly as Prestige in Renaissance Banquets
To understand why jelly appeared mid-feast, we must look at the structure of Renaissance menus—particularly those outlined in Romoli's La Singolare Dottrina. His January banquet is a masterclass in culinary pacing: it opens with bread and sugared pastries, flows into savory pasta, braised vegetables, and roasted meats, and interlaces confections and jellies throughout. Each phase of the meal is carefully balanced—sweet beside salty, cold beside hot—often with overlapping sensory contrasts on the same plate.
Romoli organized his menus into over ten structured services, including antipasti, allesso (boiled meats), arrosto sottile (delicate roasts), arrosto grosso (larger roasts), torte, and frutte stufate (stewed fruits). Each course reflected a deliberate visual, humoral, and seasonal logic. Rather than isolating dishes by flavor profile, he arranged them to follow a rhythm of richness and relief. This approach created striking moments—such as serving jelly alongside roast game or poultry—not as a dessert but as a cooling, spiced counterpoint. English and French feasts of the same era also adopted this multi-layered service style.
The preparation of Renaissance jellies involved tools and techniques that differ significantly from modern convenience methods. Cooks relied on collagen extracted by slow-boiling the feet of calves, wethers, or lambs. This process took hours and required precise timing. They clarified the resulting broth with egg whites and filtered it repeatedly through spice bags made from muslin or linen. Specialized copper or ceramic pots helped regulate temperature, while ornate molds or even hollowed eggshells shaped the final presentation. This method demanded not just labor but culinary judgment, as no pre-measured gelatin powder ensured success.
In Renaissance cuisine, jelly wasn't an afterthought—it was an edible spectacle. Found amidst roast courses, molded jellies represented Renaissance edible art and embodied the culinary hierarchy of the time. They required rare ingredients (such as spices, wine, and sugar), gelatin-rich bones, and hours of labor-intensive clarification. These elaborate creations symbolized refinement and control over nature, appearing in both Italian and English feast menus as palate cleansers and visual centerpieces.
The growing accessibility of ingredients like sugar and spices during the 16th century helped elevate jelly dishes from medicinal curiosities to prestigious banquet fare. As European trade with Asia, the Middle East, and the New World expanded, elite kitchens gained increased access to cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and pepper—ingredients that enhanced the flavor, aroma, and perceived sophistication of jellies. Sugar, in particular, shifted from a rare pharmaceutical ingredient to a hallmark of wealth. Dishes like jelly allowed hosts to signal economic power and global reach through taste and spectacle.
Bartolomeo Scappi articulates this concept in his Opera (1570), where he presents detailed instructions for constructing layered jellies composed of alternating colors, spices, and almond milk dividers. Likewise, Domenico Romoli, in La Singolare Dottrina (1560), integrates jelly into the arrosto course by pairing it with roasted wild boar cheeks, thereby demonstrating the culinary rationale for employing sweet jellies to moderate the heat and richness of roasted meats.
The Arrosto Course on the 12th Night of 2024 - Areinterpretation of Romoli's January menu included:
- Carré di costolette di manzo – Spit-roasted rack of beef ribs (we substituted brisket)
- Cipolle brasate in quaresima – Braised whole onions, Lent-style
- Salsa di noci e aglio – Walnut and garlic sauce
- Salsa di mostardo amabile – Sweet mustard sauce
- Minestre di zucche Turchesche – Turkish squash
- Tortelletti d’herba alla Lombarda – Lombard-style herb tortellini
- Gelo in bocconcini di più colori – Jelly in small bites, of many colors (the centerpiece!)
Original Italian (Scappi, Opera, 1570)
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| Scappi’s Cap. CCXLI – “Per fare gelo in bocconi di più colori” |
Piglia piedi di castrato, & di vitella, & se fora del mese d’Aprile, o di Maggio, in loco de quelli di castrato pigliar quelli d’agnello, nettandoli del pelo, & d’ungnie, & cavandone l’osso; lavisi in più acque, & mettanosi a bollire in un pignattone di rame con tanto vino bianco, & acqua che gli stia sopra; schiumi spesso, & facciasi bollire tanto, quanto sarà giusto, acciocché il decotto che se n’hà da formare faccia buona gelatina. Se vogliono accrescergli di bontà, & arte faccian bollire con detti piedi colli di castrato, o vitella, o d’agnello ben netti. Quando detto decotto fia cotto al giusto, cavinsi detti piedi, cavandone la midolla, & passisi per stamegna. Levandone ogni grasso, mettasi in una pignatta con tre ottavi di aceto forte ben chiaro, due libre di zucchero, sei albumi d’ova fresche battute. Facciasi bollire. Quando sarà prossimo a levarsi da fuoco, mettasi in una sacca di panno lino con pepe grosso, cannella, noce moscata, zenzevero, & altri aromati, se piace, & così colisi più volte, acciò sia ben chiaro. Quando detto gelo sarà colato, & schiarito, pongasi in vasi di vetro, o di terra, o in scorze d’ova, facendo li colori a parte. Se si vuole mettere un colore sopra l’altro, aspettisi che l’uno raffreddi, & rassodi prima di mettervi l’altro sopra. Fra uno, & l’altro colore si può mettere gelatina bianca fatta con latte di mandorle. Si può ancora fare con detti colori alcuni modi di frutti in forma, & piante, & animali in forme di cera, o stagno. Pongansi in luogo fresco, & si manterranno.
English Translation:
To make jelly in bites of many colors. Chapter CCXLI.
Take the feet of a wether and a calf; if it is not the month of April or May, substitute lamb’s feet for the wether’s. Clean them of hair and hooves, remove the bones, and wash in several waters. Boil them in a large copper pot with enough white wine and water to cover them. Skim frequently, and boil until the broth reduces to the appropriate level, forming a good jelly. For added flavor and refinement, you may boil clean necks of wether, calf, or lamb along with the feet.
When the broth is ready, remove the feet and extract the marrow. Strain the liquid through a cloth (stamegna), removing all the fat. Place it in a pot with three-quarters of strong clear vinegar, two pounds of sugar, and six beaten egg whites. Bring it to a boil.
When it is almost ready to remove from heat, pour it through a linen bag containing whole pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and any other desired aromatics. Strain it several times until very clear.
Once filtered and clarified, pour the jelly into glass or earthenware containers—or into eggshells. Make each color separately. If you want to stack one color atop another, allow the previous layer to cool and set before adding the next. Between colored layers, you may add white jelly made with almond milk.
You may also shape colored jellies into forms of fruits, plants, or animals using wax or tin molds. Store in a cool place and they will keep well.
Early modern cooks employed this historical jelly recipe to layer color, spice, and visual complexity into a refined banquet offering. By gelatinizing richly seasoned broths, they transformed a functional preservation method into a performative culinary art. Within the framework of Renaissance banquet culture, such jellies signaled wealth, aesthetic discernment, and mastery of technique. Their cooling properties, often accentuated by ingredients like almond milk or vinegar, also reflected humoral principles—tempering the heat and dryness of roasted meats to restore bodily balance.
Scappi Gelatin Recipe Modern Version
Prep Time: 20 minutes active, 4–6 hours chilling time
Yields: One 9" mold or several smaller servings
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Ingredients
6 cups clear stock (vegetable for vegetarian)
2 cups white wine (or lemon juice)
Juice of 1 lemon (or vinegar)
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/2 fresh ginger root, sliced
1 lb granulated sugar
1 tbsp rosewater
4 tbsp powdered gelatin (or agar for vegan)
Yellow Variation: Add a pinch of saffron
Red Variation: Use red wine instead of white; infuse with two whole nutmegs and two cinnamon sticks
Step-by-Step Instructions: How to Make Renaissance Jelly
Simmer base: Combine stock, wine, sugar, and spices in a pot. Simmer until flavors meld.
Dissolve the gelatin: Stir it in after removing the pan from the heat and continue stirring until it has fully dissolved.
Strain: Use cheesecloth or fine sieve for clarity.
Layer 1 – Red: Pour the mixture into the mold and chill until it has set completely.
Layer 2 – White: Mix almond milk with gelatin and rose water; pour over the red layer and chill.
Layer 3 – Yellow: Infuse base with saffron; pour and chill.
Unmold: Dip in warm water briefly to release jelly.
While modern cooks lack access to veal feet and 16th-century spice routes, they can still evoke the elegance and complexity of Renaissance jellies. Infusing broths or white wine with whole spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg replicates the warming and aromatic profiles found in Scappi's recipes. Clarifying with egg whites, a technique still used in consommé preparation, offers both historical fidelity and visual clarity. Almond milk layers provide a subtle nod to humoral theory, while soft floral notes, such as rosewater, enhance historical authenticity. These adaptations prioritize flavor harmony and visual drama—just as the originals did.
Vegetarian or Vegan Adaptation
To make a Renaissance banquet jelly recipe vegetarian or vegan, substitute clear vegetable stock for the meat broth. Use agar-agar (1 tsp per cup liquid); boil to activate. For the white layers, blend almond milk with agar and rose water. Agar creates a firmer set than gelatin; reduce the amount slightly for a softer texture that mimics historical gelatin.
FAQ: Medieval Jelly Food History
Was jelly served with meat in the Renaissance? Yes. Scappi and Romoli describe serving jelly in roast courses, where it balances hot, rich meats with cool, spiced elegance.
What made jelly a prestige dish? It required costly ingredients—such as sugar, wine, and exotic spices—as well as time, skill, and precise presentation. It signified wealth and artistry.
How long did 16th-century gelatin preparation take? Up to 24 hours. Boiling bones, reducing broth, clarifying, and then molding took a full day or more—often split among kitchen staff.
What is the easiest way to try a Scappi jelly today? Follow the modern adaptation above using stock, wine, gelatin (or agar), and layering in molds. It's a faithful tribute to Scappi's gelo.
Sources & References
Romoli, Domenico. La Singolare Dottrina. Venice, 1560. Google Books
Scappi, Bartolomeo. Opera dell'arte del cucinare. Venice, 1570.
Scully, Terence. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570). University of Toronto Press, 2008.
May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook. London, 1660.
To assist the writing process, I used these Grammarly AI prompts: Prompts created by Grammarly
- "Identify any gaps"
