I Can't Believe They Want Jell-O!

Mrs. Patmore here, from Downton Abbey.  As head of all the cookery at The Abbey, I'm quite accustomed to preparing twelve course meals for the lords and ladies upstairs and keeping the huge staff, this place requires, fed well enough to handle the long days and hard labour every one of us downstairs puts in.

Daisy and I can turn out souffles, pheasants, wedding cakes and trifles with never a bit of your modern day appliances!  There's nothing wrong with using a little elbow grease and a whisk, let me tell you.  Idle hands are prime for the devils work, I say.

So you can imagine my horror when the craze for this latest food hit the gentry!  Nobody was interested when Peter Cooper filed his patent in 1845.  It was sold several times and still no interest.  But, this is 1923 and a slick advertising campaign and a couple of fancy, French chefs in London have made this haute cuisine.

What is the world of the upper classes coming to! ~

The dowager duchess, Lady Violet, is said to take hers in a crystal footed bowl, on a Coalport Indian Tree under plate. She won't have it dressed up with any more than a little dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of fine sugar on the rim of the bowl. ~

I'll be doing a bit more than that for Lord Grantham's dinner!  My poor pudding mould is reduced to setting powdered crystals and water. ~

Turn it out on the Waterford crystal tray, Daisy, and don't be slow about it.  Since Lady Sybil's shenanigans with the Irish chauffeur, I'm afraid Lord Grantham isn't as fond of this Irish crystal as he once was. ~

But, it is pretty with the colour reflected in the prisms and the whipped cream roses and blueberries give a bit of the good, old Union Jack colours.

I'd better up the ice delivery if I'm to include this concoction with every meal. ~ 

Those bells never stop ringing ~

and, now Danni at Silo Hill Farm has shown you all how to make your own Downton Abbey service bells, there will be no peace for Daisy and I! ~

Thank heavens they haven't invented powdered whipped cream or Daisy and I would be out of a job!

I'll be joining the other Downton Abbey fans at A Return To Loveliness.