Virginia Cookery-book

jellies is in cheap tumblers, that may be bought with tight tops already fitted to them. Always remember, though, to put in a close-lying brandied paper immediately over the jelly. Fox-GRAPE Jelly. Currants are not plentiful every year, or it may be inconvenient in some way to have jelly made while they are in season. The very best substitute that can be found is the fox-grape. Beautiful jelly is made of them at every stage. Some prefer them green, from their similarity of flavor at that time to the gooseberry. If so, they should be gathered in July. Later, when there is just a blush of color on one side of the grapes, if the juice is expressed the result is jelly of the loveliest pink hue; later on the tint is a bright crimson. Just before frost the color is a rich garnet. At all times the flavor is fine and tart. The juice may be obtained by putting the grapes (after they have been stripped from their stems) in a tall stone jar, and setting that inside a pot of warm water that must be gradually brought to a boil, and kept boiling around it until the skins of the grapes are well broken and the juice flows freely. Stir from time to time with a wooden spoon. For clear, transparent jelly use only juice that has dripped without squeezing the bag. To avoid waste, after all has been used that would drip clear squeeze every particle that will come afterward and make a more cloudy jelly, that will answer very well for jellycake and other inferior uses. Or it may be added to the pulp rejected from the first jelly, and made into a serviceable jam for family use, by adding half a pound of sugar to every pint of the mixture, and cooking down till very thick. To one pint of clear juice for fine jelly put three-quarters of a pound of cracked loaf-sugar. To Preserve Siberian Crab-apples. These beautiful little apples, hardly larger than the finest cherries, make a highly flavored preserve and exquisitely colored jelly. Take a peck of the apples, with their stems still attached, weigh them, and allow threequarters of a pound of sugar to one of fruit ; put the apples on in enough water almost to cover them, and let them parboil; then take out the apples and spread them on dishes to cool ; add the sugar to the water, with the thinly-pared rind of four lemons and their strained juice ; boil and skim the sirup ; return the apples to it one half at a time, and let them all simmer till clear and well done ; then put them into self -sealing glass jars, pour in the sirup until they are well covered, when they may be immediately put away. The sirup left in the kettle may be boiled down until it jellies, and it is uncommonly good and beautiful. To Preserve Cranberries. Cranberries are kept perfectly well through the winter in their fresh state by simply filling a jar two-thirds full of them, then placing upon them an inverted china plate, and weighing it down with a clean, heavy stone. Fill the jar up to the brim with pure water, and take from them as many as you will use in two or three weeks; stew them rapidly in a little water, allowing three pounds of white sugar to four pounds of the fruit ; keep the cranberries covered all the while, and in from fifteen to twenty minutes they will be sufficiently tender and clear, preserving also their charming color. They are seen so universally nowadays as a sauce for turkey that one is apt to forget what a delicious tart or pudding may likewise be made of them preserved. Some persons put pound to pound of sugar and fruit, but for our own taste we prefer the proportions given above. Be particular, in preparing cranberries for table use, not to let them come in contact with tin or pewter, else the color will be injured. Damson P&bsebves.