Apple Marmalade.
2 or 3 dozen tart, juicy apples, pared, cored and sliced.
A little cold water.
¾ pound of sugar to every pint of juice.
Juice of 2 lemons.
Stew the apples until tender, in just enough cold water to cover them. Drain off the juice through a cullender, and put into a porcelain or enamel kettle; stirring into it three-quarters of a pound of sugar for every pint of the liquid. Boil until it begins to jelly; strain the lemon-juice into it; put in the apples and stew pretty fast, stirring almost constantly, until the compote is thick and smooth. (If the apples are not soft all through, you had better rub them through the cullender before adding them to the boiling syrup.)
Put up the marmalade in small jars or cups, and paste paper covers over them as you would jelly, having first fitted a round of tissue-paper, dipped in brandy, upon the surface of the marmalade. Keep cool and dry.
The simple precaution of covering jellies, jams, and marmalade with brandied tissue-paper, will save the housekeeper much annoyance and inconvenience by protecting the conserve from mould. Should the fungus form inside the upper cover, the inner will effectually shield the precious sweet. I have seen the space left by the shrinking of the cooled jelly between it and the metallic, or paper cover of the glass, or jar, completely filled with blue-gray mould—a miniature forest that might appear well under the microscope, but was hideous to housewifely eyes. Yet, when the tissue-paper was carefully removed, the jelly was seen to be bright, firm, and unharmed in flavor as in appearance.