Fox-Grape Jelly

Ingredients

• a peck of fox-grapes
• three-quarters of a pound of cracked loaf-sugar

Method

1. 1

   Put grapes in a stone jar inside a pot of boiling water until juice flows.

2. 2

   For clear jelly, use only juice that drips without squeezing.

3. 3

   For jam, add half a pound of sugar to every pint of pulp and cook until thick.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Virginia Cookery-book (1884) by Mary Stuart Smith, page 111. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Fox-GRAPE Jelly. Currants are not plentiful every year, or it may be in- convenient in some way to have jelly made while they are in season. The very best substitute that can be found is the fox-grape. Beautiful jelly is made of them at every stage. Some prefer them green, from their similar- ity of flavor at that time to the gooseberry. If so, they should be gathered in July. Later, when there is just a blush of color on one side of the grapes, if the juice is expressed the result is jelly of the loveliest pink hue; later on the tint is a bright crimson. Just before frost the color is a rich garnet. At all times the flavor is fine and tart. The juice may be obtained by putting the grapes (after they have been stripped from their stems) in a tall stone jar, and setting that inside a pot of warm water that must be gradually brought to a boil, and kept boiling around it until the skins of the grapes are well broken and the juice flows freely. Stir from time to time with a wooden spoon. For clear, transparent jelly use only juice that has dripped without squeezing the bag. To avoid waste, after all has been used that would drip clear squeeze every particle that will come afterward and make a more cloudy jelly, that will answer very well for jelly- cake and other inferior uses. Or it may be added to the pulp rejected from the first jelly, and made into a ser- viceable jam for family use, by adding half a pound of sugar to every pint of the mixture, and cooking down till very thick. To one pint of clear juice for fine jelly put three-quarters of a pound of cracked loaf-sugar

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