Smokey Mountain Breakdown

My father’s parents were products of the fin d’siecle—carrying on the Victorian ideal until their deaths in the late 1960’s. I never knew them to call each other anything other than “Mr. Griffeth” and “Mrs. Griffeth”. I often wondered if they ever slipped up in their private moments to call each other by their given names. Even the yellowed love letters I found from 1900 never had a “James” or a “Rita” in them. My Grandmother Rita was well known for her crabapple jelly and I’m sure floral jellies would not have been out of place on her damask covered dining table.

There is something ever so delicate, ever so Victorian and very Southern about floral jellies. They really speak to a bygone era where leisure time was plentiful and entertainment was more than just a hurried dinner party or a restaurant date. To serve a floral jelly, is to serve your own work of edible art.

And they do need to be consumed quickly. Many fruit jellies will keep over the year, but the essences and delicate colors in floral jellies fade over a period of six months. One technique, I will discuss today really must be refrigerated and served quickly.

Jelly is alchemy in the kitchen in a way. It does take a bit of practice to get it right. The recipe I will give you is easy in that it uses commercial pectin. This is much easier than making jelly the old way. You have to use pectin with floral jellies because the blossoms have no pectin of their own.

Once you get the hang of it, you can make small batches as you need them. I will collect the blooms when they arrive—spring is the time for dandelions and violets—then steep them and freeze jugs of the resulting floral tea. Throughout the spring and summer you will find different flowers that make lovely, sparkling floral jellies.


If you would like to really amaze your guests for a special dinner or event, try embedding a blossom in the bottom of the jelly to make an individual “pat” to place at each guest’s place setting. Choose simple flowers like violets or small roses. Wash them, dry them and press gently down with some cheesecloth. Make your jelly. Using a silicone baking form placed on a cookie sheet, pour a small amount of hot jelly into the bottom. Press your flower, face down, into this and then fill the form up with the jelly. Cover with wax paper. You may make these several days to a week before the event but they must be kept refrigerated. Turn out onto the bread dish for a jeweled mold of jelly with a flower in the top.