An English friend gave this recipe to Adelaide, and it proved to be very "tasty."
The friend said to choose the pretty pink rhubarb, then wash and wipe it thoroughly, and cut with a sharp knife into one-inch pieces. The figs were looked over carefully and Adelaide cut out the hard little part near the stem, then she put them through the meat chopper and added them to the rhubarb. When she had weighed the prepared fruit and put it into the saucepan she poured over it three-fourths its weight of sugar, and let the mixture stand until the juice ran. Placing the saucepan over the fire, she let the fruit come slowly to the boiling point, stirring with a wooden spoon occasionally. After it had boiled Adelaide stirred it frequently and cooked gently three-quarters of an hour. It was then ready to pour into the sterilized tumblers, which Adelaide never failed to have on hand, and stood away to cool.
When it was cool she wiped the top and outside of each tumbler with a clean damp cloth, poured melted paraffin over the jam, shaking it gently from side to side to exclude all air, then pasted on the labels and stored the jam away in the preserve closet.
CHAPTER III
JELLIES
When mother gave Adelaide her first lesson in jelly making, Adelaide had visions. Jelly rolls, thin bread and butter sandwiches with jelly in between, soft boiled custards served in individual glasses with a spoonful of jelly on top, and many many other delicious dainties it would take too long to tell about passed before her active little mind. For some years now, Adelaide's mother had been using a small thin glass for her red currant jelly, and any other jelly of which she was especially choice. A glass measuring cup full of jelly was sufficient to fill three of these dainty glasses, and the beauty of these lay in the fact that you could put them on the table as they were. One little glass was sufficient to serve as a relish with cold meat or chicken for a family of four.
Mother thought that as Adelaide's quantities were all small she would let her use these small glasses exclusively for her jellies. Adelaide was delighted, and often held the little glasses up to the sunlight to see how clear and attractive the jelly was.
Red Currant Jelly
| Red Currants, | 1 quart |
| Sugar | |
| Water, | 2 tablespoons |