The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

Raw Currant Jelly. — Crusli the juice from fine, full-ripe, red currants with a new wooden spoon through a delicately clean sieve. For each pint of this juice take a pound of double-refined cane loaf sugar, broken and dipped till saturated with cold water, and boiled to candy (i.e., till almost back to sugar again) ; then lift the pan from the fire, pour the currant juice to it, stirring it in quickly till it is all well mixed, then at once pour into small glass jars, and let these stand for a fortnight (before covering down) in a dry place, or in the sun, with just a paper laid over them to keep off the dust ; then bladder them down, but on no account put any paper next the jelly, or it will crust the top. This is an old family recipe, over 100 years old, and jelly made by it has often kept for ten or twelve years. Strawberry Jelly. — Place the freshly gathered and stalked fruit in the preserving-pan over a clear slow fire; let the juice flow freely, stirring it all now and again with a silver or new wooden spoon, till it has been pretty well all extracted ; then allow it to simmer gently for twenty-five to thirty minutes (but no longer, or it would thicken too much) ; now strain off the juice, weigh it, and then again boil it up sharply for twelve to fifteen minutes, stirring it constantly. Then lift the pan from the fire, and mix in, little by little, 12oz. of cane sugar to each pint of juice, being careful each lot is dissolved before the next is added in. When the juice and sugar are thoroughly blended, return the pan to the fire, and boil it sharply together till it will jelly when lifted in the spoon. Guava Jelly (Mode). — Stew some perfectly ripe medlars in a stewpan, well covered with water, till thoroughly cooked (this will take several hours), when they must be turned into a jelly bag and the juice allowed to run through at its leisure, without the slightest pressure. When it has all run through, weigh it, and boil with an equal weight of broken up cane loaf sugar till quite clear, keeping it well stirred and skimmed ; as it cools, pour it into glass jars, and when cold it should be a firm stiff jelly. Quince Jelly. — Peel, halve, and core the fruit, weigh it, and take a pint of cold spring water to every pound of fruit, dropping the latter into this as quickly as possible ; let it all simmer together till the fruit is broken, but not mashed, or the colour will be ruined. Now run it all through the jelly bag at its leisure, being careful not to press or meddle with it in any way while the juice is running through ; when all the juice is extracted, weigh it, and boil in a delicately clean preserving pan for fifteen to twenty minutes, then for each pint of juice, when weighed, add three-quarters to one pound of cane loaf sugar (according to the ripeness and sweetness of the fruit), and boil it all up together again for ten or fifteen minutes, keeping it most carefully skimmed. Directly it jellies on the spoon pour it into pots or moulds. Quince Jam is a very good preserve, prepared thus : procure some juice as above from inferior fruit, then add half a pint of this juice to each pound of fruit, weighed after peeling, halving, and coring, and finish off in the usual way. Quince Paste. — A most delicious dessert paste can be prepared thus : Take a