STRAWBERRY JELLY.
Ingredients.—Strawberries, pounded sugar; to every pint of juice allow 1¼ oz. of isinglass. Mode.—Pick the strawberries, put them into a pan, squeeze them well with a wooden spoon, add sufficient pounded sugar to sweeten them nicely, and let them remain for 1 hour, that the juice may be extracted; then add ½ pint of water to every pint of juice. Strain the strawberry-juice and water through a bag; measure it, and to every pint allow 1¼ oz. of isinglass, melted and clarified in ¼ pint of water. Mix this with the juice; put the jelly into a mould, and set the mould in ice. A little lemon-juice added to the strawberry-juice improves the flavour of the jelly, if the fruit is very ripe; but it must be well strained before it is put to the other ingredients, or it will make the jelly muddy. Time.—1 hour to draw the juice. Average cost, with the best isinglass, 3s. Sufficient.—Allow 1½ pint of jelly for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable in June, July, and August.
STRAWBERRIES and CREAM.
Ingredients.—To every pint of picked strawberries allow 1/3 pint of cream, 2 oz. of finely-pounded sugar. Mode.—Pick the stalks from the fruit, place it on a glass dish, sprinkle over it pounded sugar, and slightly stir the strawberries, that they may all be equally sweetened; pour the cream over the top, and serve. Devonshire cream, when it can be obtained, is exceedingly delicious for this dish; and, if very thick indeed, may be diluted with a little thin cream or milk. Average cost for this quantity, with cream at 1s. per pint, 1s. Sufficient for 2 persons. Seasonable in June and July.
STRAWBERRIES, Preserved in Wine.
Ingredients.—To every quart bottle allow ¼ lb. of finely-pounded loaf sugar; sherry or Madeira. Mode.—Let the fruit be gathered in fine weather, and used as soon as picked. Have ready some perfectly dry glass bottles, and some nice soft corks or bungs. Pick the stalks from the strawberries, drop them into the bottles, sprinkling amongst them pounded sugar in the above proportion, and when the fruit reaches to the neck of the bottle, fill up with sherry or Madeira. Cork the bottles down with new corks, and dip them into melted resin. Seasonable.—Make this in June or July.
STRAWBERRIES, to Preserve Whole.
Ingredients.—To every lb. of fruit allow 1½ lb. of good loaf sugar, 1 pint of red-currant juice. Mode.—Choose the strawberries not too ripe, of a fine large sort and of a good colour. Pick off the stalks, lay the strawberries in a dish, and sprinkle over them half the quantity of sugar, which must be finely pounded. Shake the dish gently, that the sugar may be equally distributed and touch the under-side of the fruit, and let it remain for 1 day. Then have ready the currant-juice, drawn as for red-currant jelly; boil it with the remainder of the sugar until it forms a thin syrup, and in this simmer the strawberries and sugar, until the whole is sufficiently jellied. Great care must be taken not to stir the fruit roughly, as it should be preserved as whole as possible. Strawberries prepared in this manner are very good served in glasses and mixed with thin cream. Time.—¼ hour to 20 minutes to simmer the strawberries in the syrup. Seasonable in June and July.
