Evening star., 1932-08-12
Picking and Jelly Making
Treatment of Salad Mixtures and Preparation OF
Tomato Paste--Soup and Reshes-How
to Avoid Mistakes.

hicks. Cover the cucumbers with
spiced vinegar and simmer Tor Is
minutes. Pack and seal in clean, hot
jars.
Jellies and Conserves.
The requisites for making jelly are
pectin. acid. sugar and water combined
in the correct proportions. Pectin and
acid are derived from the fruit, and 1t
is of primary importance that both of
these be present in sufficient amounts
The fruit should be used when the
pectin content is highest This is just
before it is fully ripe. The best plan
is to make one cupful OF the juice
into jelly before cooking the full
amount. Commercially prepared and
bottled pectin takes much of the guess
work out of jelly making. Recipes for
| its use accompany the bottle. Also,
! iellies of fancy flavor, with or without
fruit. can easily be made with such
pectin, thus adding attractive variety
to the jelly itself
How to Avoid Mistakes.
There are two methods of testing
| Juice to determine when the jelly
stage is reached. One is to put some
of the juice on a plate. If 1t forms
jelly when 1t is cooled. the juice has
been cooked sufficiently. A little diff
ficulty in using this method is that
while the juice is cooling in the plate
that in the kettle is still boiling and
may overlook Another method is to
allow some of the juice to drop from
the side Of a cold spoon. If 1t sheets of
or breaks off, the juice has reached the
proper stage and the cooking should be
| stopped.
It is now ready to be poured into the
! glasses. When 1t Is firm, layer OF
hot paraff1n should be poured over
the top This seals 1t from the air.
After the parafin has been poured
over the jelly, pointed wooden stick
may be run around the edge. Thls
helps the paraffin to stick more firmly.
Also, the glasses may be tilted to let
the paraffln make a complete seal
around the edge. or a thin layer OF
parafin may be poured over the jelly
one day and another thin layer the
next day. filling all crevices. All
bubbles should be released with a fork
while still hot.
| Soft or sirupy jellies may result from
using too much sugar in proportion to
the pectin, or because the boiling has
not. continued long enough after the
sugar was added to drive off the excess
of water. Tough jellies may be due to
the use of too small an amount Of sugar
in proportion to the pectin, or to cook
ing continued after the jellying stage
was reached The crystals that some
times appear in jelly may occur because
the sugar was added too near the time
of jellying and had not changed into
| the simple sugars which form very
minute crystals, or the sirup may spat-
| ter on the sides of the utensil during
cooking and form crystals. II one or
more of these fall into the glass when
the Juice is poured into it, they form
nuclei of large crystals. An abundance
| of tartaric acid in grapes sometimes
produces crystals in grape jelly.
Cloudy jellies may be due to the fact
| that the fruit was cooked too long be-
| fore being strained, or 1t may be the
result of careless straining of the juice
either from squeezing the bag contain
| ing the pulp in order to extract more
| juice, or from using too-thin-meshc :
material for the jelly bag, or it may re-
suit from the use of partly green fruit,
| the starch in the fruit probably giving
| the cloudy appearance. Keep jelly In
/ cool, dark place. A bright light may
cause jelly to fade. 1t may also cause
| it to leak and spoil the label.
Amber Marmalade.
Select very tender, clean, yellow,
smooth-skinned fruit, free from all
blemishes. The thick-skinned varieties
are better than those having thin,
tough peel, since this thin peel Is likely
to become still tougher after cooking
with sugar and acid.
Wash one orange, weighing about
seven ounces. one grapefruit, weighing
about one pound and three ounces and
one lemon, weighing about three ounces.
Remove the skins and slice them very
thin. Add quart of cold water to the
! sliced peel, bring to boil, cook for
five minutes, then discard the water.
Repeat this parboiling twice more, max
| ing three times in all.
Cut the fruit pulp into thin slices,
removing the seeds and rag" Combine
this sliced pulp with the parboiled skins.
| To each weight or measure of the COM
bined pulp and skins add three times
its weight or measure of water and boil
| for 40 minutes. Do not begin to count
time until it boils rapidly. Measure this
and add equal weight or measure OF
sugar and boil rapidly for 25 minutes
longer, or until the jelly stage is reach
ed. Let stand over night, reheat, pour
into scalded jelly glasses and when cold
cover with paraf1n.
The marmalade should have clear
amber color and should be jellied
throughout. The peel should be trans
parent and tender. II larger quantities
Of fruit are used, longer periods of cook
ing are necessary before the jelly stage
is reached. because of the larger guam
tity of water which must be evaporated
by boiling.