Codex: Wine Jellies

Average height: 3 inches (~7 cm)
Average weight: 1 lb (~.5 kg)

Wine jellies are a small, tough, and opaque breed of feral slime endemic to the continent.  They generally have a grayish color to them, sometimes darkening to near black if their diet includes lots of protein, and both their behavior and intelligence are comparable to rats.  They have very weak digestive fluid, and are unable to process meat until it has partly rotted.  They act as scavengers, cleaning up bits of food and biological debris, occasionally causing trouble by knocking things over.  They are placid enough to be kept as pets, although unless their diet is carefully controlled, they can reproduce quickly and become a major pest.

Wine jellies take their name from an old brewing practice, generally accepted to have been invented by a Highborn, of immersing mature jellies in a tub of grape juice mixed with a bit of yeast.  The jellies will instinctively absorb large amounts of the sugar-rich liquid, far more than they can actually digest, and swell to much larger than normal sizes.  In this state their stretched outer membrane become slightly transparent and the jelly becomes virtually immobile.  They are left in this state for several months as the grape juice ferments into wine inside of them.  While this has the somewhat comical side effect of leaving them intoxicated for a period of several months, it also produces a 'pure' flavor of wine, lacking the additional tastes that come from fermenting inside wooden barrels.  The wine is harvested simply by puncturing the jelly (which is relatively unharmed by the entire process).

Wine jellies are technically edible once cooked, tasting just slightly sweet, but are mostly just gooey.  They are commonly used as thickener in soups or sauces,  filler in some animal feed, or as fishing bait.