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Apricots Preserved in Jelly
Take two pounds of sound and not over-ripe apricots, and four of powdered loaf sugar; pour a little boiling water upon the fruit; then draw off the skin, and take out the stones by making a slit with a knife at one end, and pushing them gently out. Strew half of the sugar upon a dish, place the fruit upon it, and cover with the rest. Let it remain thus for two or three hours, then put the whole carefully into a preserving-pan; let it boil very gently until the apricots are tender, turning them frequently to prevent them burning, and taking off the scum as it rises. Put the apri ots into the glasses in which they are to be kept, then add to the syrup half a pint of apple-juice, and half a pound of sugar; let it boil until it will jelly, which it should do in a few minutes, then pour it over the fruit.
A high-sugar preserve of the pre-commercial-pectin era, where the setting power comes entirely from apple juice. Two points carry the whole recipe: the apple juice must be homemade from tart apples, and the jelly needs a temperature test the original could not give you.
- Apple-juice means fresh pectin stockBottled or carton apple juice will not set anything; it is clarified and largely pectin-free. Simmer about 1 lb of tart, slightly underripe apples (cores and skins included) in water to cover until collapsed, then strain through a jelly bag without pressing. Half a pint is 10 fl oz in British measure, roughly 1 1/4 US cups.
- Loaf sugarSugar was sold in hard cones and pounded down at home; "powdered loaf sugar" is simply ordinary granulated white sugar. Do not substitute icing/confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch.
- The sugar ratioFour pounds of sugar to two of fruit is roughly twice what a modern jam recipe uses, and the ratio is doing work: the sugar draws juice out during the maceration and helps the fruit hold its shape rather than collapsing to pulp. Cutting it is likely to give softer apricots and a syrup slower to set.
- SkinningA little boiling water poured over will loosen skins only on ripe fruit. For the firm apricots this recipe wants, blanch 30-60 seconds in a full pan of boiling water and drop straight into cold water; the skin then slips at the stem end.
- Boil very gentlyThis is the hinge. A hard boil will burst the apricots and cloud the syrup. Keep the pan at a bare simmer, turn the fruit with a slotted spoon rather than stirring, and lift the apricots out the moment they are translucent and yield to the spoon, usually 15-25 minutes.
- "Until it will jelly"Test at 220F/105C on a sugar thermometer, or use a cold-saucer test: a spoonful chilled a minute should wrinkle when pushed. "A few minutes" assumes a wide preserving pan; in a tall narrow saucepan it will take considerably longer.
- Jars and keepingFill hot into hot sterilised jars, seal at once, and treat the result as a refrigerated preserve unless you water-bath process it by current guidance for jams. Victorian "glasses" were covered with brandied paper and a tied-down cover, which is not a seal.
Cassell's belongs to the era of English cookery writing before commercial pectin, and this recipe shows how preservers managed without it: apples, quinces or crab-apples were boiled down into a pectin-rich juice and added to fruits that set poorly on their own. Apricots are generally classed as a low-pectin fruit, and in nineteenth-century Britain home-grown apricots were more often a gardener's prize than a market commodity, ripened against south-facing walls and in glasshouses on country estates, which may explain the insistence on fruit "not over-ripe" and whole. The technique of layering fruit between sugar for hours before any heat is applied is older still, generally traced to the confectioner's craft of wet suckets and preserved whole fruits, where the aim was a candied, jewel-like result that held its shape in the glass. Loaf sugar, sold in cones and broken with sugar nippers, was the refined grade such a household would have kept for preserving.