The household (of the Detroit free press)

Jelly should be examined toward the end of summer, and if there are any signs of fermentation, reboil. Jelly needs looking after more closely in damp, rainy weather than in dry. If troubled with jelly getting moldy, cover the glasses with buttered paper pressed down closely to the jelly, and paste as usual. To test jelly, drop a little in a glass of very cold water, and if it immediately falls to the bottom, it is done ; or drop it on a saucer and set it on ice, and if it does not spread but remains rounded, it is done. A very little butter rubbed with a cloth on the outside of jelly glasses or cans, will enable one to pour in the boiling fruit without breaking the cans. If jelly is not firm let it stand in the hot sun for a few days covered with thin cloth, or window glass. Jellies and jams should be covered with paper dipped in the purest salad oil, and fine tissue paper stretched over the top, cut about two inches larger, and brushed with the white of an egg ; then, when dry, they will be perfectly hard and air-tight. They should then be set away in a dry, cool and dark place. APPLE JAM. Peel and core the apples, cut in thin slices and put them in a preserving kettle with three-quarters of a pound of white sugar to every pound of fruit; add (tied up in a piece of muslin) a few cloves, a small piece of ginger and a thin rind of lemon ; stir on a quick fire for half an hour. APRICOT JAM. Pare the apricots, which should be ripe, as thinly as possible ; break them in half and remove the stones, weigh the fruit, and to every pound allow the same proportion of loaf sugar; roll the sugar fine, strew it over the apricots, which should be placed on dishes, and let them remain for twelve hours, then put the sugar or fruit into a preserving pan, let them simmer very gently until clear, take out the pieces of apricots singly as they become clear, and as fast as the scum arises carefully remove it ; put the apricots in small jars, pour over them the syrup, and put up the same as jelly. BLACKBERRY JAM. To each pound of fruit add three-fourths of a pound of sugar ; then put together and boil from one-half to three-fourths of an hour. CHERRY JAM. To every pound of fruit, weighed before stoning, allow one-half pound of sugar ; to every six pounds of fruit allow one pint of red currant juice, and to every pint of juice one pound of sugar. Weigh the fruit before stoning, and allow half the weight of sugar ; stone the cherries and boil them in a preserving pan until nearly all the juice is dried up ; then add the sugar, which should be crushed to powder, and the currant juice, allowing one pint to one pound of sugar. WHITE OR RED CURRANT JAM. Pick the fruit very nicely, and allow an equal quantity of purely powdered loaf sugar ; put a layer of each alternately into a preserving pan, and boil for ten minutes ; or they may be boiled the same length of time in sugar previously clarified and boiled like candy. DAMSON CHEESE. Take twelve pounds of damsons and put them into the oven ; when they are soft take out the stones, crack them and then blanch the kernels, then add three and a half pounds of lump sugar ; boil about three hours ; wet the molds before using them. Weigh the damsons before they are put into the oven. GOOSEBERRY JAM.