Girl's home manual of cookery, home management, home nursing and laundry

Grapefruits make good marmalade with an equal quantity of lemons. Lemons alone may be used for marmalade. Select, in all cases, sour, juicy fruit. Quantities. 1 cup cold water, ie. %4 pint. 1 cup sugar, i.e. % Ib. f 2 cups cold water, i.e. 1 pint. \ 2 cups sugar, i.e. 1 Ib. If the oranges are sweet take 34 cup of sugar to each. To each lemon or sour orange allow: { To each grapefruit allow: Method. Wash and wipe the fruit. Remove peel neatly in quarters or eighths. Cover peel with cold water, bring to boiling point, cook for about % hour. Strain and reserve the water. Remove white pith from peel with spoon or knife. Keep the pith. Take several pieces of yellow rind together and with knife or scissors cut it into fine shreds. Remove pith from oranges and slice the fruit thinly, remove pips and add them to the pith. Put pips and pith and water in which peel was boiled on to cook, simmer for one hour, strain, measure and make up with cold water to required quantity. Put sliced pulp and peel into preserving kettle and pour over the cold water and that from pips. Leave for 24 hours to soak. The next day boil the fruit and water for two hours, until it looks clear. Heat sugar on a dish in oven, add it to the boiled fruit and boil for about half an hour longer. Stir occasionally to prevent it burning. When juice jells slightly as it leaves the stirring-spoon the marmalade is cooked. Pour into hot jars. Make air-tight when cold. Store in a cool, dry place. Note. It is a substance called pectin in the white pith of the peel that causes marmalade to jelly. The pith may be left on peel and eaten if desired. If removed, boil well in water to extract the pectin and use the water as above for the marmalade. PRESERVES OR JAMS Preserves are richer than canned fruit. A small quantity only is eaten at one time. Preserves are made by cooking prepared fruit with sugar only. Use % Ib. to 1 lb. of sugar to each pound of fruit, taking into account the sweetness of the fruit. Strawberries require an equal weight. Put a layer of fruit at bottom of a preserving pan, slightly crush, add a layer of sugar, continue until pan is half full. Gradually heat sugar and fruit, stir constantly, bring to the boil, boil steadily forty-five minutes. Remove all scum as it rises. Put into jars, cover with new white paper dipped in brandy or alcohol, then put over it a paper dipped in white of egg. Make air-tight. Finish by Rules 7 and 8. Small fruits make the best preserves. Fruit Jelly. Apples, crabapples, currants, blueberries, plums, quinces, grapes, blackberries, raspberries and peaches, all yield jelly. Those mentioned first make the best. The jellying power of a fruit depends on the amount of pectin it yields when cooked. The fruit must be dry and not over-ripe. See Rule 1 for canning. Directions for Jelly-making. (1.) Prepare fruit as for canning. See page 98, (2.) Juicy fruits, such as currants, grapes and juicy berries, need no water. Apples and quinces should be nearly covered with water. Plums and dry berries may need a very little water. (3.) Place fruit in preserving pan, crush it to extract some juice. This. is not needful when water it used. (4.) Cook fruit slowly until it falls to pieces. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. , (5.) Pour fruit and juice into two thicknesses of hot damp cheesecloth or a flannel or felt jelly bag may be used. Let the juice drip; do not squeeze the fruit, or juice may be clouded. After straining, cover fruit again with water and boil to extract more juice; this will make a second grade of jelly. The cheesecloth, or a clean white towel, may be made into a bag to hang, may be spread over a colander, or tied to the four legs of an up-turned chair. In all cases a clean basin must be put to catch the juice.