Peter Brears has a long acquaintance with jellies in every guise. He was fed them in childhood he turned to curating their moulds and associated artefacts while director of York and Leeds museums he has made them for innumerable historical food shows and events.And jelly is a much bigger thing than some packet from the supermarket mixed with boiling water. In the first place it was not factory-made gelatine that did the setting but any number of ingenious adaptations of kitchen materials and ingredients. In the second it was not just a simple clear coloured solid but an optical prism to show off and transform the foods contained within it. It was the cook s greatest resource for introducing colour variety and delight into the table display.The book sketches in the history of jellies particularly in England and discusses their place within a meal; gives several recipes based on the various setting agents (carrageen gelatine isinglass) and also for cereal moulds (flummery tapioca semolina rice cornflour etc.); describes how jellies may be assembled by layering embedding lining and inclusion of fruit nuts gold etc.; and gives an excellent illustrated account of the various forms of jelly moulds.