CURRANT JELLY

Wash the currants in cold water, put them on to cook in. an enameled kettle with enough water to prevent burn- ing, one cup water to four quarts fruit. Cook fruit slowly, constantly stirring with wooden spoon. It will take from thirty minutes to an hour to extract the juice. Remove fruit from the kettle and put into a cheese cloth jelly bag to drain. After the juice is pretty well drained (do not squeeze the bag) return pulp to the stove, cover with water and cook a second time (about half an hour). Stir and cook slowly as before, then strain again, mixing this juice with the first. Measure the juice carefully by cups. To each cup of juice measure three-fourths cup sugar. Put the juice (not more than ten cups at a time) on to cook. Put the dry sugar in a pan in the oven to heat; when the juice comes to the boiling point let it boil steadily for ten minutes, then add the hot sugar and

176 BETHANY UNION COOK BOOK

boil ten minutes mure. Watch for the jelly test; that is, when the jelly sheets oft' the spoon, or drops off in jelly form, instead of as a liquid. This is usually after the twenty minutes' boiling. Then pour jelly into clean glasses, filling nearly to the top. The glasses will not break if standing on a moist cloth. It is a help to pour the jelly through a funnel and also avoids breaking glasses. After the jelly is set and perfectly cold, cover with hot parafftne and set the tin cover over.

This recipe for jelly was given me about twenty years ago by an experienced housewife and has been almost never failing. Occasionally too much water has been added and the juice has had to cook longer than twenty minutes. Again, the fruit has been too ripe and there- tore not acidic enough for good jelly.

Not long ago I came across a very interesting pam- phlet on jelly making by Dr. Goldthwaite, of the House- hold Science Department of the University of Illinois. She gives practically the same directions and very care- fully explains the scientific reasons for the same, sum- marized as follows:

1st. Pectin is the fundamental jelly-making substance of fruit juice. It is like starch in chemical constituency, not like gelatine. Pectin is extracted from fruit by cook- ing. Sometimes it is not found in raw fruits at all. Raw apples, raw grapes, raw quince have very little pectin, but cooking produces it in large quantities. One may test the juice for pectin after it is extracted from the pulp by the following method :

Put one or two tablespoons of juice in a glass. Add an equal amount of alcohol. If pectin is present, a gelati- nous mass will appear in the liquid which may be gath- ered up with a spoon.

2nd. The amount of sugar must be in the right pro- ])ortion to the pectin in the juice. The most common cause of failure is too much sugar. Therefore one mav test the juice for pectin, if at all uncertain, and if found in small quantities, try a sample of juice with three- fourths amount of sugar or exen less and see if a good jelly will result.

BETHANY UNION COOK BOOK 177

Either beet or cane sugar may be used in making jelly.

Good jellies cannot be made from all juices by rule-o'- thumb. Jelly making as practiced in the home is an art — an art founded on scientific principles. It consists in so controlling conditions by means of sugar (and acid), and by boiling, as to cause the pectin to "set" in a con- tinuous mass throughout the volume allotted to it.

The white inner skins of oranges and of lemons are prolific sources of pectin. Hence genuine jellies from these fruits may be made. The pectin from these skins may also be used for strengthening other fruit juices.

Mrs. CD. Hill.

Other jellies may be made as follows: