Medlar Jelly.—Gather the medlars when quite sound, wipe them well, and let them stew in the preserving-pan with just enough boiling water to cover them till they are in a pulp. Drain the fruit through a piece of canvas, but do not press the pulp. Weigh the juice, and allow half a pound of sugar to every pint. Boil it till quite clear, stirring and skimming well. When it jellies, pour it into small moulds, and let it set.
Currant Jelly (No. 1).—Strip red currants from their stalks, and put them into the oven. When quite juicy, pass them through a hair sieve or a coarse cloth. To every pint of juice allow a pound of loaf sugar well beaten and sifted. Heat the sugar on a dish in the oven, putting it between two sheets of foolscap paper, and when the currant juice has boiled for a couple of minutes, strew the sugar into it by degrees whilst the juice is boiling hot. It will jelly immediately, and gain flavour by keeping. Put it at once into pots.
Currant Jelly (No. 2).—To six pounds of red, white, or black currants add four pounds of sugar and half a pint of currant juice extracted from additional currants. Stir the fruit well together in a preserving-pan, set it on a brisk fire, and when it boils up, pass it through a cloth into a basin with a lip. Pour the jelly from the basin at once into pots. Let the pots remain uncovered for nine days, and then tie them up.
Blackberry Jelly.—Take six pounds of blackberries before they are quite ripe, pick them from the stalks, and put them into a jar. Tie the jar up closely, set it in a pan of water on the fire till the blackberries become pulp. Then strain the fruit through a cloth, and to one pint of juice add one pound of sifted sugar. Boil it to a jelly, and pour it into pots for use. Blackberry jelly is much improved if half the quantity of blackberries is used and the other half made up of bullaces or wild plums. But bullaces are now rare.
Scotch “Jam Jelly.”—This preserve is made from the berries of the mountain ash, gathered when they have become nearly (but not quite) ripe. Take off the stalks, and stew the berries in a jar set in boiling water. They take many hours’ stewing before they become tender, but in the end they make excellent jelly. For the mountain-ash berries allow a pound of sugar to a pound of pulp.
Damson Cheese.—Stew the damsons till tender in a jar set in boiling water. Rub them through a coarse sieve to take off the skins. Take out the stones, crack them, and blanch the kernels. Boil the cheese for one hour. Then weigh it, and add one pound of sugar to two quarts of the damson pulp. Boil it, stirring it well till it is thick. Keep the fire low, and boil the pulp very slowly. After the cheese has thickened well, leave off stirring; but it must boil quite to a candy, and may take seven hours. Put in the kernels a few minutes before the damson cheese is taken off the fire. The cheese will be done when it leaves the sides of the pan. A peck and a half of damsons will make ten pints of cheese. Cover the moulds when cold with paper dipped in brandy.
Brandy Cherries.—To every pound of Morello cherries, stalked but not stoned, add three-quarters of a pound of best loaf sugar. Take a few cherries, bruise them, and take as much juice from them as will make the sugar into a very thick syrup. Fill wide-mouthed bottles with the cherries, and prick each cherry all over with a fine needle. Let the syrup get quite cold, then pour it on the cherries, and fill up the bottles with good brandy.
Brandy Peaches.—Peel the peaches carefully with a silver dessert-knife, and as you do so put each peach into cold water. Choose a deep stone jar, put into it one pound of peaches covered with three-quarters of a pound of sifted sugar. Fill up the jar with good brandy. Set the jar in a pan of cold water on the fire, and let it gradually heat till the brandy is nearly boiling. Then let it get cold and tie up the jar closely.