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Grape Jelly
Prepare fruit and rub through a sieve; to every pound of pulp add a pound of sugar, stir well together, boil slowly twenty minutes, then follow general directions; or, prepare the juice, boil twenty minutes, and add one pound of sugar to one pound of juice after it is reduced by boiling; then boil ten or fifteen minutes. Or put on grapes just beginning to turn, boil, place in jelly-bag and let drain; to one pint juice add one pint sugar, boil twenty minutes, and just before it is done add one tea-spoon dissolved gum-arabic.
Three methods in one paragraph: a pulp jelly, a reduced-juice jelly, and an underripe-grape jelly stiffened with gum arabic. All three assume you weigh rather than measure, and that you know when jelly has set.
- Pick grapes on the early sideThe third method's instruction to use "grapes just beginning to turn" is the pectin trick, not a shortcut. Underripe grapes carry far more pectin and acid than fully ripe ones, which is why that version needs no added pectin; a mix of about one-quarter underripe to three-quarters ripe gives set plus flavour.
- Weight, not volume"A pound of sugar to a pound of pulp" means a scale. A pound of sugar is roughly 2 1/4 cups; a pint of juice weighs about 1 pound, so the pint-for-pint direction in the last method is the same ratio expressed loosely.
- Ignore the clock, watch the setTwenty minutes is a guess that depends on your pan and your grapes. Cook to 220F at sea level (8 degrees above the boil where you live), or until a spoonful sheets off in a curtain rather than dripping. A wide pan sets faster than a deep one.
- Don't squeeze the bagLet the jelly-bag drain by gravity, however slow. Pressing or wringing it forces fine pulp through and gives cloudy jelly, a fault period cookbooks warned against repeatedly.
- Tartrate crystalsGrape juice throws gritty crystals of potassium bitartrate. Refrigerate the strained juice overnight and pour it off the sediment before boiling, or the finished jelly will crunch.
- Gum arabicSold as acacia gum, still available from baking and confectionery suppliers. A teaspoon dissolved in a little hot water was added as insurance against a soft set; with underripe grapes it is usually unnecessary, and it does nothing for flavour.
- "Follow general directions"The book's separate directions on sealing reflect 1870s practice. Current practice for jelly is hot jars, new flat lids with reusable bands, and a boiling-water bath -- USDA gives 5 minutes for jelly, other guides 10; anything not processed should be treated as a refrigerator jelly and used within a few weeks.
- YieldThe pulp method yields more than the juice methods, but a thicker, jam-like product rather than a clear jelly.
Buckeye Cookery came out of Ohio in the late 1870s. The Concord grape, selected by Ephraim Bull in Concord, Massachusetts and released commercially in the 1850s, was hardy enough for Midwestern gardens and acid and pectin-rich enough to jell reliably, and was widely planted in the region by the 1870s. The three alternative methods here suit a cook with a loaded vine, including a pulp version that wasted nothing. The gum arabic in the last variant is a reminder that commercial pectin was not sold until the early twentieth century, so some cooks reached for a confectioner's gum, or for underripe fruit, to help guarantee a set.