Jellies

CURRANT JELLY

Pick over half ripe currants, leaving stems on. Wash and place in preserving kettle. Pound vigorously with wooden masher until there is juice enough to boil. Boil slowly until fruit turns white and liquid drops slowly from the spoon. Stir to prevent scorching.

Remove from fire. Take an enamelled cup and dip this mixture into the jelly bags, under which large bowls have been placed to catch the drip. Drip overnight.

Next morning measure the juice. For every pint allow a pint of granulated sugar, which is put in a flat pan. Juice is put in kettle and allowed to come to boiling point. Sugar is placed in oven and heated. When juice boils add sugar and stir until dissolved.

When this boils remove from fire and skim. Do this three times. Now test liquid with syrup gauge to see if it registers twenty-five degrees. Without gauge let it drip from spoon, half cooled, to see if it jells. Strain into sterilized jelly glasses. Place glasses on a board in a sunny exposure until it hardens Cover with melted paraffin one-fourth inch thick.

RASPBERRY AND CURRANT JELLY

Follow the recipe for Currant Jelly, using half raspberries and half currants.

RASPBERRY JELLY

Follow the recipe for Currant Jelly.

BLACKBERRY JELLY

Follow the recipe for Currant Jelly.

STRAWBERRY JELLY

To five quarts of strawberries add one quart of currants and proceed as with Currant Jelly; but boil fifteen minutes.

GRAPE JELLY

The Concord is the best all-round grape for jelly, although the Catawba grape makes a delicious jelly. Make your jelly as soon as possible after the grapes are sent home from the market. Weigh the grapes on the stems and for every pound of grapes thus weighed allow three-quarters of a pound of the best quality of granulated sugar.

After weighing the grapes, place them in a big tub or receptacle of some kind nearly filled with cold water. Let them remain ten minutes, then lift them out with both hands and put them in a preserving kettle over a very low fire. Do not add any water. With a masher press the grapes so the juice comes out, and cook the grapes until they are rather soft, pressing them frequently with the masher. When they have cooked until the skins are all broken, pour them, juice and all; in a small-holed colander set in a big bowl, and press pulp and juice through, picking out the stems as they come to the surface.

When pulp and juice are pressed out, pour them into a cheese-cloth bag. Hang the bag over the preserving kettle and let the juice drip all night. In the morning put the kettle over the fire and let the grape juice boil gently for a half hour, skimming it frequently.

While the juice is cooking put the sugar in pans in a moderate oven and let heat. As soon as the juice is skimmed clear stir in the hot sugar, and as soon as it is dissolved pour the jelly in the glasses, first standing them in warm water. Place glasses after filling them in a cool dry place till jelly is well set, then pour a film of melted paraffin over the top and put on the covers. Label.

CRAB-APPLE JELLY

Take eight quarts of Siberian crab-apples, cut up in pieces, leaving in the seeds, and do not pare. Put into a stone jar, and set on the back of the stove to boil slowly, adding four quarts of water. Let them boil, closely covered all day, then put in a jelly-bag and let them drip all night. Boil a pint of juice at a time, with a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. Boil five minutes steadily, each pint exactly five minutes. Now weigh another pound of sugar and measure another pint of juice. Keep on in this way and you will be through before you realize it. There is no finer or firmer jelly than this. It should be a bright amber in color, and of fine flavor. You may press the pulp that remains in the jelly-bag through a coarse strainer, add the juice of two lemons and as much sugar as you have pulp, and cook to a jam.