Jams and Jellies

Pick fruit when just ripe.

Look over fruit.

Put stems and fruit in a porcelain‑lined kettle (or brass or tin if scoured very bright).

Use best refined or granulated sugar, ensuring it has no bluish tinge.

If two fruits are combined, crush a little of the fruit and put all together in the kettle, adding no water.

As it heats, mash with a potato masher.

When hot, strain through a jelly bag.

Let all run off before squeezing the bag.

Add one pound of sugar to every pint of this juice.

Boil the juice twenty‑five minutes.

Add the sugar and boil for five more minutes.

Remove fruit immediately after it is taken from the fire.

Put up in glasses.

Examine jelly toward end of summer; if signs of fermentation, reboil.

Look after jelly more closely in damp, rainy weather than in dry.

If jelly gets moldy, cover glasses with buttered paper pressed down closely to the jelly, and paste as usual.

To test jelly, drop a little in a glass of very cold water; if it immediately falls to bottom, it is done.

Or drop it on a saucer set on ice; if it does not spread but remains rounded, it is done.

Rub a very little butter with a cloth on the outside of jelly glasses or cans to enable pouring boiling fruit without breaking cans.

If jelly is not firm, let it stand in hot sun for a few days covered with thin cloth or window glass.

Cover jellies and jams with paper dipped in purest salad oil, and tissue paper stretched over top, cut about two inches larger, and brush with egg white; when dry, they will be hard and airtight.

Set away in a dry, cool, dark place.