Then have ready the same quantity of ripe currants. Squeeze them through a linen bag which has been wrung out of cold water. Prepare a pound of loaf-sugar for each pint of currant juice. Put the sugar into a preserving-kettle, and pour the currant-juice over it. When it has melted, set it on the fire, and boil and skim it for ten minutes. When no more scum rises, put in the raspberries. As soon as they are all scalded, take off the kettle, cover it, and set it away for two hours. Then put it again on the fire for about five minutes. Afterward set it again away for two hours, and then return it to the fire as before. This must be done three times in all, but on no account allow the raspberries to boil. If done with care, they will be whole and transparent.
When cold, put them up in glasses.
If you preserve white raspberries, do them in the juice of white currants.
Any other fruit may be done in jelly in the same manner.
ORANGE JELLY.
Peel twelve large sweet oranges, and cut them into small pieces. Put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure the juice, and if it does not amount to a pint, squeeze some more pieces of orange through the bag. Put a pound of double-refined loaf-sugar into a preserving kettle, and pour the juice over it. When the sugar has melted, put it over the fire. Dissolve two ounces of isinglass in a little hot water, and add it to the jelly just as it is beginning to boil. Let it boil hard twenty minutes. Then put it into glasses, and tie it up with brandy-paper.
Lemon-jelly may be made in this manner.
CLARIFIED SUGAR, FOR PRESERVES, AND OTHER USES.
To each pound of sugar allow half a pint of water, and half the white of an egg; thus four pounds of sugar will require a quart of water and the whites of two eggs. Mix the white of egg with the water, and beat it to a froth with rods. Take two thirds of the water, and pour it over the sugar. When it has melted, set it over the fire. When it rises and boils, pour in a little more of the water, and diminish the fire to abate the boiling and allow the scum to rise. Take it off, skim it well, and in five minutes set it on the fire again. When it boils a second time, add a little more water; and afterwards take it off and skim it again. Repeat this till it is quite clear, and no more scum rises. Then take it from the fire. Dip a fine napkin in warm water, wring it out, and then strain the syrup through it. Afterwards put your fruit into the syrup, and boil it till tender.
You may keep this syrup in bottles, and at any time you can put fruit into it; for instance, strawberries, raspberries plums, apricots &c. If only wanted for immediate use, you need not boil them, but send them to table in the syrup, with the advantage of their natural color and flavor.