Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Jellies of Small Fruits. — Select fruit that is juicy but not over-ripe. Grapes and cherries are harder to jelly than the other fruits. It will require little picking over. Currants need not be stemmed. Put them over a slow fire in a stone crock set in an outer vessel of water, or in a preserving-kettle in which you have laid a thick plate that will keep the fruit from the bottom of the pot. The stone jar is preferable if the fruit is to cook all night. Stir occasionally with the wooden paddle, breaking the berries against the side of the vessel. When the juice has flowed freely, the fruit may be squeezed in a fruit or vegetable press, and the fruit thus expressed strained through a flannel jelly - bag. The first runnings from this will be clearer than that squeezed through at the last. When all is strained, measure the juice. To each pint of this should be allowed i lb. of granulated sugar. Return the clear juice to the fire in the preserving-kettle, bring quickly to a boil, and let it cook twenty minutes after reaching this point. Skim it, put in the sugar, bring the juice to the bubble once more, stirring all the time, and boil hard one minute. Have ready the jelty-glasses, ar- ranged on a wet cloth, and fill quick- ly, placing a spoon in each as you fill it, to prevent cracking. As the jelly shrinks in cooling, each glass should be very full. Lemon Marmalade. — Boil them in as much water as will cover them for two hours. Pour off the water once or twice during that time, and replace it with fresh boiling water. Drain the lemons, and cut them into thin slices. Leave out all the pips and weigh the fruit, and allow 2 lbs. of loaf sugar and a pint of the water the lemons were last boiled in for every pound of fruit. Boil the sugar and water for ten minutes. Put in the pulp, etc., and boil together for half an hour. Pour the marma- lade into jars. Lemon Syrup. — Wipe large, perfect lemons with a damp cloth, roll until soft, cut in halves, and squeeze out the juice ; grate the rinds of several, add, and let stand in a stone jar overnight. Strain and measure the juice ; to every pint allow 3 lbs. of sugar. Beat the white of an egg, mix with a pint of cold water, pour over the sugar, turn into a porcelain kettle, stir until dis- solved, set over the fire, let come to a boil, and skim; add the lemon-juice ; let boil five minutes. Take from the fire, cool, and bottle. In the spring, when lemons are plentiful, they can be bought very cheap, and syrup made from them to last for a year. * Limes, Preserved. — Lay them in salt and water strong enough to bear an egg, closely covering them until the warm weather is over. Cut them enough to get out all the seeds, and place in cold water for one day, chang- ing the water often so as to remove all the salt. Boil in water (in which soda has been added in the proportion of one teaspoonful to six quarts of water) till tender enough to put a straw through ; then soak again in cold water one day, changing the water often. To each 292 Mixed Preserves PRESERVES, ETC. Peach Conserves pound of fruit allow 2/4 lbs. of white sugar and three pints of water. Boil the syrup fifteen minutes, put the fruit in, cook five minutes, remove, put into jars ; let the syrup cook fifteen minutes longer. They will keep any number of years.