1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
. 3 
Jelly Making Simplified. 
T HE new housewife usually hesitates 
about attempting making jelly. Even 
some older housewives do not know the 
scientific method of jellying. It is true 
that some things will “set” easier and 
better than others, but nearly all kinds of 
fruit can be made to jelly, provided the 
pectin, jellying principle, is present, and 
if it is not, no amount of sugar or cook¬ 
ing will make the product jelly. Cur¬ 
rants. apples, quinces, and citron all con¬ 
tain pectin in large degree, and these 
may be combined with other fruits lack¬ 
ing this jellying quality. Not that the 
fruits mentioned are all that will jelly 
alone, by any means. Grapes are rich 
in pectin, and especially green or not 
very ripe ones. The green grapes’ juice 
may be combined with other fruits as an 
aid to clear, solid jellying. 
Now to take up a corcrete example of 
jelly-making. We will begin with cur¬ 
rant jelly, which is one of the most pop¬ 
ular varieties, most delicious, and really 
very easily spoiled by long cooking. Do 
not be tempted to use the currants with 
the stems on. Some very good jelly 
makers advise that method, but I know 
by actual experience that the jelly made 
that way has a less delicate flavor and a 
much darker color. It does not take 
long to stem currants, and it pays in 
jellying. In selecting currants choose 
those that are a little green, although 
ripe ones will be all right, those that 
are at least a third green will jelly soon¬ 
er, and make a better flavored, more 
beautiful colored jelly than those thor¬ 
oughly ripened. Over-ripe fruit of any 
kind is not suited to jelly-making. Hav¬ 
ing stemmed the currants, put them into 
a granite or porcelain vessel and cover 
with water, that is Hot alkaline. In 
many districts the water is so alkaline 
it counteracts the acid in the fruit and 
jelly making is rendered difficult, if not 
impracticable. Rain water answers very 
well in case such water is the common 
household product. Do not make the 
mistake of using too much water, as the 
extra amount will have to be cooked out, 
and long cooking spoils the color and 
takes away the delicate, fresh flavor of 
the jelly. 
Heat the currants rather slowly, and 
crush with a wooden potato masher, when 
well-heated so that the pulp is soft and 
juice exudes freely. Remove from the 
fire and pour into a jelly bag. A square 
of cheese cloth, sewed up diagonally makes 
a very good bag. Ilang or place some¬ 
where. where it can be held stationary 
and let the juice drain out. If your ob¬ 
ject is the very highest product then do 
not press or squeeze, but if you want the 
most jelly for the amount of fruit used, 
then press and squeeze until all the juice 
is crushed out. This might make the 
jelly a little cloudy, but if it is strained 
again through a thick bag, like flannel, 
it will be just as clear and transparent 
as that made from the liquid that merely 
drips out itself. In fact I have found 
that the jelly stiffens better if the fruit 
is pressed. It seems to be the pulp part 
that holds the greatest balance of the 
pectin. Having the juice extracted, meas¬ 
ure and put over the fire. Measure an 
equal quantity of sugar and place in the 
oven. Do not let it get too hot. so that 
it either scorches or melts, but if such a 
thing should happen, do not let it worry 
you, because if it is candied or scorched 
it will merely rise on top of the jelly and 
can be skimmed or strained off. The 
sugar should get real hot however. Let 
the juice boil 20 minutes, no longer, then 
add the sugar, it will strike the boiling 
liquid with a hiss, and will dissolve al¬ 
most immediately. When the sugar is 
dissolved skim the jelly till clear, then 
turn through a bag into the jelly glasses, 
or strain, and put in glasses after the 
straining. Do not let the jelly cook more 
than three minutes after the sugar is 
added, as it soon turns dark and the fla¬ 
vor is impaired. 
To put this whole thing in a few words, 
wash and stem fruit, cover with cold 
water, bring to a boil, and mash, turn 
into a jelly bag and drain, measure your 
juice and the same quantity of sugars 
Put the juice over the fire alone, and the 
sugar into a warm oven to heat. Boil 
juice just 20 minutes, add the sugar, and 
boil two minutes, skim well, and strain. 
Put in glasses. That is the recipe in a 
nutsh'll, but the explanations are needed 
by the unaccustomed jelly-maker. One 
need not worry, or test the liquid. It 
will jelly without any such bother. Fre¬ 
quently the jelly jellies on the spoon and 
edges of the utensil used, but even if it 
does not, do not cook longer than the 
time specified. Do not be tempted to use 
more than enough water to cover the 
fruit. If you want to experiment, then 
do so, but if you want jelly without ex¬ 
periment and with sure success try the 
above. I tested it more than 20 years 
ago, a little doubtful of the result, but 
the rule has been followed in all the suc¬ 
ceeding years, and it does not fail. If 
the jelly does not solidify at once do not 
let that disturb you. In this case, put it 
in a sunny window, and cover with thin 
cheese cloth, to allow the action of sun 
and air upon it. Finally cover with melt¬ 
ed paraffin. You will have a jelly the 
finest flavored, and something that will 
keep indefinitely, without crystallizing 
or moulding. The paraffin seals it tight, 
unless it is disturbed and loosened. Cur¬ 
rant jelly can also be made without cook¬ 
ing at all. Currants are crushed and 
juice poured, or strained or pressed off. 
Add an equal amount of sugar, put into 
rather shallow glasses, cover with cheese 
cloth, and place directly in the sun and 
air. This will eventually form a jelly of 
the most ambrosial type. It should not 
be kept in too warm a place save for the 
action of the sun. 
It is a good plan to can some currant 
juice to mix with other fruits later. 
Strawberries, not too ripe, even a little 
green, make a delicious jelly, but may be 
combined with a little currant juice to 
the betterment of the same. Let me say 
in passing that white currants make a 
jelly just about the same color as the 
red ones. Rod raspberries make a fine 
jelly, and may either be used alone or 
with a little of the currant juice. Goose¬ 
berry jelly is made identically the same 
as the currant jelly, and I prefer the 
berries quite green. Pieplant is some¬ 
thing that is difficult to jelly, but with a 
little pectin from some other fruit it 
jellies all right, and there is a time when 
it will jelly itself, alone, but this time is 
in August when the stalks are well-ma¬ 
tured. Always select well-matured stalks 
of pieplant for jellying. Black raspber¬ 
ries, black currants, and blackberries all 
make delicious jelly but are used more for 
jams. The jellying is done by the first 
rule given, but in nearly all the Summer 
fruits a little of the currant juice adds 
piquancy and acidity and aids the 
jellying. 
Pineapple juice does not jelly readily, 
but if this is canned in the season, and 
made into jelly with tart but very slight¬ 
ly flavored apples, it makes a jelly a little 
unusual. Wild plums, wild grapes, the 
buffalo-berry, all make fine jellies. Tame 
plums should be jellied while a little 
green, so also should tame grapes. 
Peaches will not jelly, nor apricots, but 
will form a most delicious product, com¬ 
bined with apples. 
To make apple, or crab apple jelly, 
merely wash and cut up the fruit, exclud¬ 
ing the seeds, cover with water and cook 
tender, press out the juice, and follow the 
regular rule as to time of cooking and 
amount of sugar used. These all jelly 
readily and look beautiful. Quinces, 
hold a large amount of pectin, and may 
be jellied alone or with apples. Usually 
the apples cost less, and the quince flavor 
is strong enough to supply half its own 
bulk of apple with the regular quince 
flavor. In using quinces for jellying, it 
is an economical plan to use the body of 
the fruit for preserving with sweet apples, 
and only the peelings for the jelly. Every 
seed must be excluded, as the seeds form 
a viscid, sticky substance which will nev¬ 
er jelly, and is really unsuited for food. 
We usually use the peach skins the same 
way, for peach jelly. Some use the juice 
from canned peaches, but it is a poor 
plan, because one never knows just how 
much extra sugar to supply, and another 
thing, it is well to use only sufficient 
water or syrup to can the peaches prop¬ 
erly, and fix your jellying liquid accord¬ 
ing to the right rule. 
ROSE SEELYE-MILLER. 
It is better to admonish than to re¬ 
proach ; for the one is mild and friendly, 
the other harsh and offensive; the one 
corrects the faulty, the other only con¬ 
victs them.—Epictetus. 
Homemade Yeast. 
H AVE you ever printed any recipes for J 
homemade yeast, and will you re¬ 
peat it? >r. a. r. 
The following recipes were given in 
The R. N.-Y. several years ago, and have 
been tested with satisfaction by many 
readers: 
Homemade Yeast. —Pare and boil 
four good-sized potatoes; when done, 
mash them fine. Put half a cupful of 
dried hops into one quart of water, and 
boil 15 minutes. Put one pint of flour 
into a bowl, strain over it the boiling hop 
water, add the mashed potatoes, and beat 
until smooth, then add half a cup of 
sugar and two heaping tablespoonfuls of 
salt. Turn into a stone jar or bowl, and 
let it stand until lukewarm, cover and 
ferment three or four hours, stir it down 
every time it comes to the top of the ves¬ 
sel, then put it into a jar or large bot¬ 
tle, or something you can cover tightly, 
and stand in a place where it will keep 
very cold, but not freeze. It will keep 
two weeks. Save one cupful of this yeast 
to start with next time. 
Virginia Dry Hop Yeast. —Take as 
many hops as you can grasp in your hand 
out of a sack (or a few more won’t hurt), 
put in a porcelain or granite pan, then 
add two quarts cold water; boil briskly 
for one-half hour; have boiling water 
ready to fill up pan as full as before 
boiling. Then have ready a gallon jar 
with ly?, cup wheat flour, one large 
spoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of 
salt; mix all together and strain the hop 
tea in jar. Stir all lumps out. set away 
to cool. When lukewarm add a good 
yeast cake or any good raising to start 
it. Then let it stand one day and night, 
stir down once or twice during this stand¬ 
ing ; then pour in pan, take one part 
wheat flour, two parts cornmeal, make 
as stiff as dough for light wheat bread. 
Make in small cakes like those you buy ; 
put on floured cloth on a board and dry. 
turning till real dry. Put in paper sack, 
keep tied tight. Keep where it will not 
freeze. This will last a family of seven 
or eight for five months. 
More About Rose Beads. 
O N page 800 you print an article on 
rose beads. The using of an old 
rusty kettle is very offensive to me, 
and I send you directions from “Young 
Folks,” from which we made hundreds of 
beads last year of all sizes. We used the 
petals of the roses ready to fall, gathered 
them every morning and used a peck meas¬ 
ure, pressed full of petals for one batch ; 
added no perfume, their own fragrance 
is at the end of the year still scenting 
my bureau drawers. We used a new 
thin, black pan, the five-cent quality; I 
think they are called sheet iron, and can 
be purchased at any of the five and ten 
cent stores. Our beads have been greatly 
admired. This year we are going to 
make up all the rose petals we can gath¬ 
er. For uniform size we measured each 
one, by different size spoonfuls of pulp 
and rolled them between glass when part¬ 
ly dried, which made them glossy; do not 
use oil. 
A large quantity of rose petals is re¬ 
quired, even for a single string of beads. 
The petals may be of any or all kinds 
and colors, but care must be taken to 
remove all the stems, dried p tals, leaves 
and other foreign substances. The petals 
are then ground to a fine pulp in an or¬ 
dinary food chopper. It is necessary to 
run the pulp through the food chopper 
six times, so that it may be as fine and 
smooth as it is possible to make it. A 
surprising quantity of juice runs from 
the petals as they are reduced to pulp, 
but all of this is saved and well mixed 
with the mass. 
The pulp is a dirty white or pink 
color. It is spread in a thin layer on 
sheet iron pans, when it soon begins to 
blacken by the oxidation of the iron. 
Every few hours it is turned and stirred, 
in order that the entire mass may become 
uniformly black. The blackening process 
may be greatly hastened by adding a few 
drops of tincture of iron. As a rule, a 
very little attar of roses is added to the 
pulp, so that the beads may be appro¬ 
priately perfumed. 
The next step is to mold the beads. As 
soon as the pulp has dried sufficiently to 
work easily and hold its shape small 
quantities are taken in the hands and • 
rolled between the palms until perfectly 
round. Of course, the balls are made 
much larger than the finished beads are 
desired to be. as they shrink in drying to 
about one-third of their original size. 
Then they are placed upon plates or pans 
until partly dried, when they are again 
rolled to correct any irregularities of 
shape. Then they are pierced with large 
pins, and left upon these pins to dry. 
Those who are particularly skilled at 
bead making sometimes ornament each 
bead in any manner suggested by the in¬ 
dividual taste and ingenuity. a. l. s. 
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HOME COMFORT 
A Good Percolator is a necessity in 
every household. We will send you 
the percolator described below, delivery 
charges prepaid for 
Three (3) New Yearly Subscriptions 
or Six (6) Renewal Subscriptions 
(One of these may be a renewal of your 
own subscription.) 
Percolation is the automatic process 
of pumping hot water up the tube and 
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If your neighbors are not subscribers to the 
Rural New-Yorker, get tbeir subscriptions. If 
they are subscribers, get tbeir renewal. 
Rural New-Yorker, 333 West 3Cth St., New York. 
