Take fine ripe currants, and strip them from the stems. Put them into a pan, and mash them with a large spoon, or a wooden beetle. Stew them in their own juice (no water,) and sweeten them when they are taken from the fire. For company, press the fruit through a sieve before you add the sugar, and shape it in a mould.
It will answer every purpose of regular currant jelly, to eat with game, venison, &c.
RIPE PEACH SAUCE.—
Take juicy freestone peaches; pare and stone them, and cut them up. Save all the juice, and stew them in it. When quite soft, take them off the fire, and sweeten them. The flavor will be much improved by stewing with them a bunch of fresh peach leaves, to be taken out when the peaches are done. Or, if you cannot readily obtain the leaves, a handful of the fresh peach kernels, stewed with the fruit, (and to be taken out afterwards,) will answer the purpose.
It is well, even in the sunny side of a city garden, to plant two peach stones; so that when they grow into trees, you may have peach leaves at hand for improving the flavor of custards, and other things. Unless the trees are perfectly healthy, and the leaves green, do not use them.
DRIED PEACH SAUCE.—
The richest and best dried peaches, are those that are dried with the skins on. The skins (however thick,) entirely dissolve in cooking, and become imperceptible when the fruit is well stewed. It is a great error to pare peaches for drying. Apples must be pared, for the skin is tougher than that of peaches, and does not dissolve in cooking.
To prepare dried peaches for stewing, pick them over carefully, throwing away all the imperfect pieces. Wash them in two cold waters, and then put them into a stew-pan, (adding no water,) and stew them till they are quite soft, and shapeless, and mash easily and smoothly in the pan. Sweeten them with plenty of brown sugar, as soon as they come off the fire.