Pick red currants until you have 7 lbs., then force the whole of them through a splinter sieve, to which add 7 lbs. of sifted lump sugar; boil this very well over a brisk fire for twenty minutes, stirring it all the time with the spatter. This is very useful for tartlets, cheaper than rasps, and a much better colour. Put it into jars, cover them with paper dipped in brandy and bladder them over.
257.—Apple Jelly.
Take codlin apples, cut them very thin across, fill your preserving pan nearly full, cover them with soft water and then with a sheet of paper, set them on a slow fire, let them simmer slowly for a considerable time to extract the jelly from the apple. They must not on any account be stirred about in the pan. When the virtue appears to be quite extracted from them pour them into a jelly-bag. Cut more apples as before, about half the quantity, put them into the pan, and pour over them the extract from the first apples, simmer them very slowly as before. When the essence is all extracted put them into a jelly-bag. This jelly is used in the putting up of all preserved fruits.
258.—Gooseberry Jam.
Take 7 lbs. of clean, picked, dry gooseberries, put them into your preserving pan with 1 pint of water and 7 lbs. of sifted loaf sugar. Boil over a clear fire from twenty minutes to half an hour; when they are boiled to the consistency required take them off, put them into jars and secure them from the air as the others.
259.—Orange Marmalade.
Take 12 Seville and 12 China oranges, pare the outer skin off as thin as you can, lay it in soft water and freshen it every two hours to take out the bitterness, then pull off the white skin from the pared oranges and throw it away; cut them across, squeeze the juice from them, and set them on the fire in the preserving pan with plenty of soft water, boil them until so soft as to pulp through a hair sieve. Then boil the outer skin equally soft. If it will not go through, beat it well in a mortar and then put it through; add to it the other pulp and the juice. Weigh it, and to each pound allow 1 lb. 2 ozs. of sifted loaf sugar. Boil this well together, stirring it all the time, until it will retain the mark of the scraper, when it will be ready to put into jars, which must be secured from air as before.