The complete cook book

This is the best of all apple jellies. Wash the apples, cut them up, remove all defects, remove the seeds and the blossom end, but do not pare them. Lay them in your preserve kettle, and cover them with water; then boil them until they are soft, but do not let them mash up from too much boiling. Drain off all the water and mash the apples with the back of a silver spoon. Put this in a jelly bag, and place a deep dish under it to collect the juice. To every pint of the juice allow a pint of loaf sugar; boil it and skim it. It will be ready to dip out into tumblers in half an hour, if you have complied with these directions. Always dip jelly out with a silver spoon, as any other kind darkens fruit. I have seen preserves rendered very dark by putting in them a new-tinned dipper. You must be careful of these things if you desire your confections to be elegant. The Complete Cook Book. 281 CRANBERRY JELLY. One quart of cranberries, one pound of sugar, onehalf pint of water. Wash the cranberries and put them on with the water to boil for ten minutes, then mash and squeeze through a flannel bag. Return the juice to the kettle, add the sugar, boil rapidly and continuously for about fifteen minutes, or until it jellies, and turn eut to cool. CURRANT JELLY. Select currants that have been freshly picked and are not too ripe. If they are sandy, wash them, but do not stem. Mash a small quantity at a time in a stone jar, with a potato masher, squeeze through a flannel bag, then strain again without squeezing, that the liquor may be perfectly clear. Turn the liquid into a porcelain-lined kettle, stand over a brisk fire. Put the sugar into earthen basins, and put in the oven to heat. Boil the juice twenty minutes after it begins to boil, then stir in hastily the hot sugar, and stir until the sugar is dissolved — no longer. Skim thoroughly, bring it quickly to a boil again, and boil two minutes. Dip the tumblers into hot water, fill them with the boiling liquid, and stand away for twenty-four hours to jelly. If it is not then suflSciently jellied, cover the tumblers with common window glass and stand in the sun several days. Then cover with tissue paper, as directed for all berry jelly. CURRANT JELLY (No. 3). Currants should not be over-ripe, nor gathered after a rain, as then they are too watery. In New England currants are in the best condition about the tenth of July. Equal parts of red and white currants, or currants and raspberries, make a delicately colored and flavored jelly. Pick over and remove the leaves and poor fruit, and if gritty wash and drain them, but do not stem them. Mash them in a porcelain-lined kettle with a wooden pestle, without heating, as that makes the jelly darker. Let them drain in a flannel bag over 282 The Complete Cook Book. night. Do. not squeeze them, or the jelly will be cloudy. In the morning measure a bowl of sugar for each bowl of juice, and heat the sugar carefully in an earthen dish in the oven. Stir it often to prevent burning. Boil the juice twenty minutes, and skim thoroughly. Add the hot sugar, and boil from three to five minutes, or till it thickens on a spoon when exposed to the air. Turn at once into glasses, and let them remain in the sun several hours. GREEN GRAPE JELLY. Gather Catawba grapes before ripening. Pick them from the stem, wash them, and put them in a stone jar. Set the jar in a kettle of cold water over a hot fire. When the juice comes out of the grapes, take the kettle off, and strain the grapes. To each pint of juice put one pound of the best loaf sugar. Boil twenty minutes in the kettle. Ripe grape jelly may be made in the same way. GRAPE JELLY.