Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Part 36

Having stewed two quarts of gooseberries in the above manner, stir them as soon as they are cold into a quart of rich boiling milk.

Grate in a nutmeg, and covering the pan, let the gooseberries simmer in the milk for five minutes. Then stir in the beaten yolks of two or three eggs, and immediately remove it from the fire.

Keep on the cover a few minutes longer; then turn out the mixture into a deep dish or a gla.s.s bowl, and set it away to get cold, before it goes to table. Eat it with sponge-cake. It will probably require additional sugar.

Gooseberries prepared in this manner make a very good pudding, with the addition of a little grated bread. Use both whites and yolks of the eggs. Stir the mixture well, and bake it in a deep dish. Eat it cold, with sugar grated over it.

TO BOTTLE GOOSEBERRIES.

For this purpose the gooseberries must be large and full grown, but quite green. Top and tail them, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles as far up as the beginning of the neck. Cover the bottom of a large boiler or kettle with saw-dust or straw. Stand the bottles of gooseberries (slightly corked) upright in the boiler, and pour round them cold water to each, as far up as the fruit.

Put a brisk fire under the boiler, and when the water boils up, instantly take out the bottles and fill them up to the mouth with boiling water, which you must have ready in a tea-kettle. Cork them again slightly, and when quite cold put in the corks very tight and seal them. Lay the bottles on their sides in a box of dry sand, and turn them every day for four or five weeks. If properly managed, the gooseberries will keep a year, and may be used at any time, by stewing them with sugar.

You may bottle damsons in the same manner; also grapes.

PRESERVED RASPBERRIES.

Take a quant.i.ty of ripe raspberries, and set aside the half, selecting for that purpose the largest and firmest. Then put the remainder into your preserving pan, mash them, and set them over the fire. As soon as they have come to a boil, take them out, let them cool, and then squeeze them through a bag.

While they are cooling, prepare your sugar, which must be fine loaf. Allow a pound of sugar to every quart of whole raspberries.

Having washed the kettle clean, put the sugar into it, allowing half a pint of cold water to two pounds of sugar. When it has melted in the water, put it on the fire, and boil it till the sc.u.m ceases to rise, and it is a thick syrup; taking care to skim it well. Then put in the whole raspberries, and boil them rapidly a few minutes, but not long enough to cause them to burst. Take them out with a skimmer full of holes, and spread them on a large dish to cool. Then mix with the syrup the juice of those you boiled first, and let it boil about ten or fifteen minutes. Lastly, put in the whole fruit, and give it one more boil, seeing that it does not break.

Put it warm into gla.s.s jars or tumblers, and when quite cold cover it closely with paper dipped in brandy, tying another paper tightly over it.

Strawberries may be done in the same manner; blackberries also.

RASPBERRY JAM.

Take fine raspberries that are perfectly ripe. Weigh them, and to each pound of fruit allow three quarters of a pound of fine loaf-sugar.

Mash the raspberries, and break up the sugar. Then mix them together, and put them into a preserving kettle over a good fire.

Stir them frequently and skim them. The jam will be done in half an hour. Put it warm into gla.s.ses, and lay on the top a white paper cut exactly to fit the inside, and dipped in brandy. Then tie on another cover of very thick white paper.

Make blackberry jam in the same manner.

TO PRESERVE CRANBERRIES.

The cranberries must be large and ripe. Wash them, and to six quarts of cranberries allow nine pounds of the best brown sugar.

Take three quarts of the cranberries, and put them into a stew-pan with a pint and a half of water. Cover the pan, and boil or stew them, till they are all to pieces. Then squeeze the juice through a jelly-bag. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, pour the cranberry juice over it and let it stand till it is all melted, stirring it up frequently. Then place the kettle over the fire, and put in the remaining three quarts of whole cranberries. Let them boil till they are tender, clear, and of a bright colour, skimming them frequently. When done, put them, warm into jars with the syrup, which should be like a thick jelly.

RED CURRANT JELLY.

The currants should be perfectly ripe and gathered on a dry day.

Strip them from the stalks, and put them into a stone jar. Cover the jar, and set it up to the neck in a kettle of boiling water.

Keep the water boiling round the jar till the currants are all broken, stirring them up occasionally. Then put them into a jelly-bag, and squeeze out all the juice. To each pint of juice allow a pound and a quarter of the best loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a porcelain kettle, pour the juice over it, and stir it frequently till it is all melted. Then set the kettle over a moderate fire, and let it boil twenty minutes, or till you find that the jelly congeals in the spoon when, you hold it in the air; skim it carefully all the time. When the jelly is done, pour it warm into tumblers, and cover each with two rounds of white tissue paper, cut to fit exactly the inside of the gla.s.s.

Jelly of gooseberries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, barberries, blackberries, grapes, and other small fruit may all be made in this manner.

WHITE CURRANT JELLY.

The currants should be quite ripe, and gathered on a dry day.

Having stripped them from the stalks, put them into a close stone jar, and set it in a kettle of boiling water. As soon as the currants begin to break, take them out and strain them through a linen cloth. To each pint of juice allow a pound and a quarter of the best double refined loaf-sugar; break it small, and put it into a porcelain preserving pan with barely sufficient water to melt it; not quite half a pint to a pound and a quarter of sugar; it must be either clear spring water or river water filtered. Stir up the sugar while it is dissolving, and when all is melted, put it over a brisk fire, and boil and skim it till clear and thick.

When the sc.u.m ceases to rise, put in the white currant juice and boil it fast for ten minutes. Then put it warm into tumblers, and when it is cold, cover it with double white tissue paper.

In making this jelly, use only a silver spoon, and carefully observe all the above precautions, that it may be transparent and delicate. If it is not quite clear and bright when done boiling, you may run it again through a jelly-bag.

White raspberry jelly may be prepared in the same manner. A very nice sweetmeat is made of white raspberries preserved whole, by putting them in white currant jelly during the ten minutes that you are boiling the juice with the syrup. You may also preserve red raspberries whole, by boiling them in red currant jelly.

BLACK CURRANT JELLY.

Take large ripe black currants; strip them from the stalks, and mash them with the back of a ladle. Then put them into a preserving kettle with a tumbler of water to each quart of currants; cover it closely, set it over a moderate fire, and when the currants have come to a boil, take them out, and squeeze them through a jelly-bag. To each pint of juice you may allow about a pound of loaf-sugar, and (having washed the preserving kettle perfectly clean) put in the sugar with the juice; stir them together till well mixed and dissolved, and then boil it not longer than ten minutes; as the juice of black currants being very thick will come to a jelly very soon, and if boiled too long will be tough and ropy.

Black currant jelly is excellent for sore throats; and if eaten freely on the first symptoms of the disease, will frequently check, it without any other remedy. It would be well for all families to keep it in the house.

GRAPE JELLY.

Take ripe juicy grapes, pick them from the steins; put them into a large earthen pan, and mash them with the back of a wooden ladle, or with a potato beetle. Put them into a kettle, (without any water,) cover them, closely, and let them boil for a quarter of an hour; stirring them up occasionally from the bottom. Then squeeze them through a jelly-bag, and to each pint of juice allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the grape juice; then put it over a quick fire in a preserving kettle, and boil and skim it twenty minutes. When it is a clear thick jelly, take it off, put it warm into tumblers, and cover them with double tissue paper cut to fit the inside.

In the same manner you may make an excellent jelly for common use, of ripe fox grapes and the best brown sugar; mixing with the sugar before it goes on the fire, a little beaten white of egg; allowing two whites to three pounds of sugar.

GRAPES.

Take some large close bunches of fine grapes, (they must not be too ripe,) and allow to each bunch a quarter of a pound of bruised sugar candy. Put the grapes and the sugar candy into large jars, (about two-thirds full,) and fill them up with French brandy. Tie them up closely, and keep them in a dry place. Morella cherries may be done in the same manner.

Foreign grapes are kept in bunches, laid lightly in earthen jars of dry saw-dust.

TO KEEP WILD GRAPES.

Gather the small black wild grapes late in the season, after they have been ripened by a frost. Pick them from the stems, and put them into stone jars, (two-thirds full,) with layers of brown sugar, and fill them up with cold mola.s.ses. They will keep all winter; and they make good common pies. If they incline to ferment in the jars, give them a bail with additional sugar.

TO PRESERVE STRAWBERRIES.

Strawberries for preserving should be large and ripe. They will keep best if gathered in dry weather, when there has been no rain for at least two days. Having hulled, or topped and tailed them all, select the largest and firmest, and spread them out separately on flat dishes; having first weighed them, and allowed to each pound of strawberries a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Sift half the sugar over them. Then take the inferior strawberries that were left, and those that, are over ripe; mix with them an equal quant.i.ty of powdered sugar, and mash them. Put them into a basin covered with a plate, and set them over the fire in a pan of boiling water, till they become a thick juice; then strain it through a bag and mix with it the other half of the sugar that you have allotted to the strawberries, which are to be done whole. Put it into a porcelain kettle, and boil and skim it till the sc.u.m ceases to rise; then put in the whole strawberries with the sugar in which they have been lying, and all the juice that may have exuded from them. Set them over the fire in the syrup, just long enough to heat them a little; and in a few minutes take them out, one by one, with a tea-spoon, and spread them on dishes to cool; not allowing them to touch each other. Then take off what sc.u.m may arise from the additional sugar. Repeat this several times, taking out the strawberries and cooling them till they become quite clear. They must not be allowed to boil; and if they seem likely to break, they should be instantly and finally taken from the fire. When quite cold, put them with the syrup into tumblers, or into white queen's-ware pots. If intended to keep a long time it will be well to put at the top a layer of apple jelly.

TO PRESERVE CHERRIES.

Take large ripe morella cherries; weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Stone the cherries, (opening them with a sharp quill,) and save the juice that comes from them in the process. As you stone them, throw them into a large pan or tureen, and strew about half the sugar over them, and let them lie in it an hour or two after they are all stoned. Then put them into a preserving kettle with the remainder of the sugar, and boil and skim them till the fruit is clear and the syrup thick.

CHERRIES PRESERVED WHOLE.