Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Raspberry Jam. — Take 6 lbs. of berries and 4 l/z lbs. of sugar. Crush the berries with a wooden spoon, and put pulp and juice in a preserving-kettle. After they boil, cook steadily half an hour, stirring often. Add the sugar, cook twenty minutes longer, and put boiling hot into jars. If there is a great deal of juice, dip out part of it and make jelly of it or reserve it for raspberry vinegar. Either black or red raspberries may be used for this, but the latter are especially delicious. Raspberries, Preserved (French recipe).— Take 4 lbs. of raspberries picked from the stalks, set aside at least half, which should be the finest ; add to the rest I lb. of white currants, and bruise and strain them through a cloth, wringing it so as to extract all the juice. Put the juice into a preserving - pan, and allow % lb. of sugar to 1 lb. of juice, including the weight of the raspberries left whole. Let the sugar and juice boil, skimming it, and at the end of twenty minutes put in the rest of the fruit and let it boil for ten minutes longer. When the preserve is boiled enough — it is so if the syrup jellies when a little is put on a plate to cool — take it off the fire, and pot in the usual way. Another way : — To 1 lb. of fruit allow 1 lb. of white sugar, pounded, and boil twenty minutes without stirring. When done, put into small glasses, as directed for strawberries, and set in the sun from time to time. A delightful preserve to send to table with any delicately flavored icecream. Raspberries Preserved Whole. See Blackberries. Raspberry Syrup (an old Virginia recipe). — To every quart of berries add 1 lb. of loaf sugar, and let stand overnight. In the morning put on to boil for half an hour; skim, and strain through a jelly-bag; let cool; pour into bottles, and cork. Strawberry Jam. — For this a smaller berry will do, but choose one that is sweet and firm. Hull, wash, and measure the fruit. Take pound for pound of sugar; crush the berries till there is juice enough so that they will not burn ; boil them with one-third of the sugar, and crush them as they cook for fifteen minutes ; add onethird more sugar, and after fifteen minutes the rest, and cook another fifteen minutes, making three-quarters of an hour to every kettle of fruit. This should be enough, but if the berries are watery they may need longer. Try by cooling a little in the air, and take up as soon as the jam sets. Strawberries, Preserved. — Select large but firm berries, hull and wash them, and measure 2 lbs. of fruit and 2 lbs. of sugar. Put half a cupful of hot water in your kettle, add the sugar, stir till hot, and then put in the 2 lbs. of fruit and slowly simmer for five minutes. The berries will certainly lose their color and shrink; but take the whole up and put in shallow earthen or agate dishes, and. stand in the sun for three days, taking them in at night, and if it is very hot, moving them into the shade during the noon hour. The third day the color will return, the berries will grow plump and firm, and the syrup will almost jelly. Only 2 lbs. must be put over at once, but they do not take long to do, and a few pounds may be put up on one day and a few more a little later, and so on. Put them in cans or glasses without reheating. Another way : — Allow oqly x/z lb. Strawberries PRESERVES, ETC . Tomato Preserve