Exceedingly Fine Apple Jelly

Ingredients

• Apples, 7 lbs.
• water, 7 pints
• Sugar, 4 lbs.
• Juice three lemons.

Method

1. 1

   Pare and slice the apples, removing stalks and eyes.

2. 2

   Place in clean jars, dip in cold water to preserve color.

3. 3

   Boil in water until soft, then strain through a jelly-bag.

4. 4

   Weigh the juice, boil for 10 minutes, then stir in sugar until dissolved.

5. 5

   Boil again for 8-10 minutes, skimming off scum.

6. 6

   Add lemon juice before removing from heat.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 20 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Modern cookery, in all its branches (1884) by Eliza Acton, page 456. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Apples, 7 lbs., water, 7 pints: \ to full hour. Juice, 6 lbs. : 20 minutes quick boiling. Sugar, 4 lbs. : 10 to 25 minutes. Juice three lemons. EXCEEDINGLY FINE APPLE JELLY. Pare quickly some highly flavoured juicy apples of any kind, or of various kinds together, for this is immaterial ; slice, without dividing them ; but first free them from the stalks and eyes ; shake out some of the pips, and put the apples evenly into very clean large stone jars, just dipping an occasional layer into cold water as this is done, the better to preserve the colour of the whole. Set the jars into pans of water, and boil the fruit slowly until it is quite soft, then turn it into a jelly-bag or cloth and let the juice all drop from it. The quantity which it will have yielded will be small, but it will be clear and rich. Weigh, and boil it for ten minutes, then draw it from the fire, and stir into it, until it is entirely dissolved, twelve ounces of good sugar to the pound arid quarter (or pint) of juice. Place the preserve again over the fire and stir it without intermission, except to clear off the scum, until it has boiled from eight to ten minutes longer, for otherwise it will jelly on the surface with the scum upon it, which it will then be difficult to remove, as when touched it will break and fall into the preserve. The strained juice of one small fresh lemon to the pint of jelly should be thrown into it two or three minutes before it is poured out, and the rind of one or two cut very thin may be simmered in the juice before the sugar is added ; but the pale, delicate colour of the jelly will be injured by too much of it, and many persons would altogether prefer the pure flavour of the fruit. Juice of apples, 1 quart, or lbs. : 10 minutes. Sugar, 1| lb. : 8 to 10 minutes. Juice, 2 small lemons; rind of 1 or more ai pleasure. 524 MODERN COOKERY. [chap. xxiv. Obs. — The quantity of apples required for it renders this a rather expensive preserve, where they are not abundant ; but it is a remark- ably fine jelly, and turns out from the moulds in perfect shape and very firm.* It may be served in the second course, or for dessert. It is sometimes made without paring the apples, or dipping them into the water, and the colour is then a deep red : we have occasionally had a pint of water added to about a gallon and a half of apples, but the jelly was not then quite so fine in flavour. The best time for making it is from the end of November to Christmas. Quince jelly would, without doubt, be very fine made by this receipt ; but as the juice of that fruit is richer than that of the apple, a little water might be added. Alternate layers of apples and quinces would also answer well, we think. QUINCE JELLY. Pare, quarter, core, and weigh some ripe but quite sound quinces, as quickly as possible, and throw them as they are done into part of the water in which they are to be boiled, as directed at page 456 ; allow one pint of this to each pound of the fruit, and simmer it gently until it is a little broken, but not so long as to redden the juice, which ought to be very pale. Turn the whole into a jelly-bag, or strain the liquid through a fine cloth, and let it drain very closely from it but without the slightest pressure. Weigh the juice, put it into a deli- cately clean preserving pan, and boil it quickly for twenty minutes ; take it from the fire and stir in it, until it is entirely dissolved, twelve ounces of sugar for each pound of juice, or fourteen ounces if the fruit should be very acid, which it will be in the earlier part of the season ; keep it constantly stirred and thoroughly cleared from scum, from ten to twenty minutes longer, or until it jellies strongly in fall- ing from the skimmer ; then pour it directly into glasses or moulds. If properly made, it will be sufficiently firm to turn out of the latter, and it will be beautifully transparent, and rich in flavour. It may be made with an equal weight of juice and sugar mixed together in the first instance, and boiled from twenty to thirty minutes. It is difficult to state the time precisely, because from different causes it will vary much. It should be reduced rapidly to the proper point, as long boiling injures the colour : this is always more perfectly pre- served by boiling the juice without the sugar first. To each pound pared and cored quinces, 1 pint water : % to 1 £ hour. Juice, boiled 20 minutes. To each pound, 12 oz. sugar : 10 to 20 minutes. Or, juice and sugar equal weight : 20 to 30 minutes. QUINCE MARMALADE. When to economise the fruit is not an object, pare, core, and * It is, we should say, quite equal to gelee d: pomrnes , for which Rouen is some- what celebrated. CHAP. XXlV.] PRESERVES. 525 quarter some of the inferior quinces, and boil them in as much water as will nearly cover them, until they begin to break ; strain the juice from them, and for the marmalade put half a pint of it to each pound of fresh quinces : in preparing these, be careful to cut out the hard stony parts round the cores. Simmer them gently until they are perfectly tender, then press them, with the juice, through a coarse sieve ; put them into a perfectly clean pan, and boil them until they form almost a dry paste ; add for each pound of quinces and the half pint of juice, three-quarters of a pound of sugar in fine powder, and boil the marmalade for half an hour, stirring it gently without ceas- ing : it will be very firm and bright in colour. If made shortly after the fruit is gathered, a little additional sugar will be required ; and when a richer and less dry marmalade is better liked, it must be boiled for a shorter time, and an equal weight of fruit and sugar may be used. Quinces, pared and cored, 4 lbs. ; prepared juice, 1 quart : 2 to 3 hours. Boiled fast to dry, 20 to 40 minutes. Sugar, 3 lbs.: 30 minutes. Richer marmalade : quinces, 4 lbs. ; juice, 1 quart ; sugar, 4 lbs.

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.