The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-07-16
The Art of JelIy-Making.

The fruits most commonly used are
strawberries, currants, apples, peaches,
crab-apples, ounces and raspberries.
Of these crab-apples and ounces jelly
most easily: strawberries and raspber-
ries are the hardest to manage. The
reason for this lies in the pectin, which
is the iellying principle of fruits.
When fruit is in the green state it has
about the same chemical composition
as the leaf, and has then a constituent
called pectose, which is insoluble. AS
it ripens, by a kind of fermentation
this pectose becomes pectin, soluble
substance of a gelatinous character. If
this substance is destroyed or suffi-
GENTLY weakened the fruit can not Jelly.
Now it will be at once seen that the
fruits which jelly most easily are those
which contain the greatest amount of
this principle in comparison to the
water and other elements of their COM
position, and vice versa. In wet sea-
son fruits of all kinds absorb more
moisture, therefore are harder to jelly.
This would be especially so with
fruits containing large amount of
water in the first place, such as straw
berries. A jelly can not be made of
cherries without the addition of geatine,
for too large percentage of their COM
position is water. The first step in
making jelly is, of course, the gather
ing or buying of the fruit. For good
Jelly this must be quite fresh, not
overripe nor underripe; first, because it
will not easily jelly under those adverse
circumstances; secondly, because it is
unwholesome, and is, if underrpe, too
TO ,,1o Matt ~
should the fruit be gathered immedi-
ately after a rain. These are little
things, but they are quite essential to
success. We now come to the second
step, the making. The usual rule is 10
use pound of sugar to pint of juice.
The ways of extracting the juice of the
fruits are so simple and well known
that they need scarcely be mentioned
here. This precaution, however, must
be insisted upon in the making of clear
jelly--the jelly must be strained through
perfectly clean flannel bag, without
squeezing. In the kind of sugar to use
one finds variety of opinions, but ex-
perience and observation lead me to de-
eide that white graduated sugar is by all
means the best The cheaper sugars
leave an unpleasant taste, and thei1
sweetening power is not so great. 1t is
rather difficult in the larger cities, in
these degenerate days, to find not only
unadulterated but uncolored sugar. Il
might be supposed that at least white
sugar, after the trials it has been sub
iected to in order to make it white
could be sold without coloring, bu
dealers claim that the colored is pre-
ferred to the uncolored, so indigo, a
vegetable dye, is used to give it thu
proper sellable hue. This dye is insol.
uble in water, and often has much tC
do in keeping jellies cloudy. The suga
is used not only to give the desired
flavor and sweetness, but as preserva
tive. The fruit juice alone would sooi
spoil, but with the admiXture of suga
and properly kept, never. Fruit at thu
right stage of maturity will Jelly, afte
the proper amount of cooking, withou
the addition of sugar, so that the suga
is not added to give the required SO
lidity. The juice must be boiled in
porcelain-lined kettle to permit tn
evaporation of the water before tn
sugar is added. If this fact of evapora
ton is kept in mind, after very littl
experience person anxious to sue
coed will have few drawbacks. Wit
the more watery fruits, ina wet season
and with very ripe fruits, a longer boi
ing must take place. Too long boilin
destroys the gelatinous capabiity of tn
pectin, and the fruit will never Jelly, S
happy medium must be fount
Twenty minutes is the usual time {
boiling before the sugar is added, bl
it varies with different fruits. AS
am only to give suggestions, | can nj
give rules, which can be found in mo-
good cook books. The porcelain-line
kettle, or its equivalent, is an absolut
necessity, for health's sake. The aci
of fruit acts on an iron kettle, and th
jelly or preserve becomes to certai
: extent poisonous. Another point
gelatine. The use of this should
avoided, because it is an amin
substance and soon spoils. Jelly har
ened by its use will not keep, and hi
invariably disagreeable favor-GO'
Housekeeping.