The Rural cook book

Put a silver spoon in the tumbler before turning the jelly in as another means of avoiding cracking the glass ; it can be moved from tumbler to tumbler as you proceed. Fill brimming full, as the jelly will shrink as it cools. The glasses may now be placed in a sunny window, protected from dust, and let stand for 24 hours. Cover with melted parafiin, poured directly on to the jelly; then seal as usual. Apple Combination. — A housewife who has tried it says that a delicious combination jelly is made by cooking a half peck each of apples and quinces and a quart of cranberries together until soft, after barely covering with water. Strain, and to every pint of juice allow a scant pint of sugar, then proceed as with other jellies. It is delicately flavored, and a beautiful pink in color. Barberry Jelly. — For domestic use the berries should not be gathered until well frosted. For jelly the fruit need not be stripped from the stems. Put the fruit in a porcelain kettle with water to come to the top of the berries and boil until thoroughly cooked, then put into a jelly bag and drain out the juice; return the juice to the kettle and boil hard 15 minutes. Measure it before boiling down. Add a pound of sugar to each pint and boil rapidly 10 minutes, then put away in glasses. This is an excellent jelly to serve with meat. Blackberry Jelly. — Make the same as currant jelly.. Crab-apple Jelly. — Wash, cut in pieces two gallons of crab apples ; place in the preserving kettle, just cover with cold water and cook until the pieces are tender. Drain through cheesecloth, measure, and when the juice has boiled 10 minutes, stir in one pound white sugar to each pound white sugar to each pint of juice. Boil hard until it is jelly; about 10 minutes' boiling after tbe sugar has been added. Now take the tender pieces left after straining, rub through a sieve or colander ; fo each pint of pulp add one-half as much sugar. Cook until the sugar is thoroughly blended with the pulp, stirring quite frequently. Add spices if preferred, fill into glass cans, seal, and take to the cellar when cool. This makes a delicious butter, almost a marmalade, and is very nice in the Winter with pork. Two gallons of crab apples will make six glasses of jelly and five or six quarts of butter with the addition of 11 pounds of sugar. Crab apple will mix well with wild grapes for jelly. The two fruits should be cooked together, and made like any other jelly. The proportion may be whatever is most convenient; half and half, or one-third grapes to two-thirds apples, will be found excellent. Wild Crab-apple Jelly. — Cook the cored crabs till tender and drip in a jelly bag. Use more sugar than for ordinary jelly — about five cups of sugar to four of juice — and cook quickly. This is delicious both in color and flavor. Mrs. C.'s Currant Jelly; — The currants are picked over as if for canning, then put in the preserving kettle. As the fruit heats, it is mashed with a large spoon until juice is pretty nearly all extracted. The juice Is all dipped off and her jelly is made according to the common recipe. She now adds to the currants left in kettle an equal amount of raspberries — either black or red is added, and jam is made by the addition of three- fourths of a pound of granulated sugar to each pound of fruit. In this way she says jelly making is an easy task, and she also has the consciousness of having used every bit of the currants. Elderberry Jelly. — Strip the ripe berries into the kettle and stir over the fire with a wooden spoon until the juice flows freely; turn into a jelly bag and let drain without touching so as not to become cloudy. Weigh and boil sharply 15 minutes. Remove from fire and add sugar, allowing 14 ounces to one pint of juice. Boil 15 minutes, stirring and skimming until it jellies. This is an English recipe and a very good one.