Preserves and Jellies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the berries
Gather berries after the first frost, remove stems, and wash them.
Make the jelly
In a kettle, combine the berries and sugar.
Cook the mixture until it reaches a jelly consistency; test by letting it drop from a spoon.
Fill and seal
Fill glasses to the brim with the jelly.
Pour ¼ inch of melted paraffin on top to seal and preserve the jelly.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Berries
- Provide the fruit, pectin and flavor that form the body of the preserve.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the mixture thicken into a jelly as it cooks.
- Paraffin
- Forms a sealed layer on top that blocks air and helps protect the jelly from spoilage.
The step that matters
Cooking to jelly consistency. Cooking too briefly leaves the mixture runny, while cooking too long can make it stiff or scorch. The spoon drop test checks that sugar and fruit pectin have concentrated enough to set as it cools.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.