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Black Currant Jelly
To every pint of juice obtained, after pressing and straining, from well-ripened fruit, allow one pound of loaf sugar. When the juice has come to the boil, skim well and add the sugar; stir the jelly steadily till all the sugar has disappeared, and boil, not simmer, for about eight or nine minutes. If not thick enough, which may be ascertained by dropping some on a cold plate, boil a little longer. Put into pots for use, and when cold fasten down with paper made to adhere to the pots with white of egg. Probable cost, from 8d. to 10d. per half-pound pot. (See also CURRANT JELLY, BLACK.)
A straightforward high-pectin jelly that needs almost nothing from the modern cook except accurate measuring and a hard, rolling boil. The only part worth replacing outright is the sealing method.
- The pint is imperialCassell's pint is 20 fl oz, about 2.4 US cups. One pound of sugar to 20 fl oz of juice is roughly 2.25 cups sugar per 2.4 cups juice — close to an equal ratio by volume, which helps make the set reliable.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was simply refined white sugar sold in a cone or cut cubes, prized because it was cleaner than the brown sugars of the day. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct equivalent; no need for jam sugar, as black currants carry plenty of pectin.
- Getting the juiceThe recipe assumes you already have it. Barely cover the stemmed currants with water, simmer 10 to 15 minutes until they burst, then drip through a jelly bag or several layers of muslin. Do not squeeze the bag if you want a clear jelly.
- Boil, not simmerThis is the hinge, and the original says so. A slack simmer drives off water without reaching the temperature at which pectin sets, and the result is syrup. Keep it at a full rolling boil that you cannot stir down, and expect setting point at 220F/105C at sea level.
- The cold plate testChill two or three saucers in the freezer beforehand. Take the pan off the heat while you test, put a teaspoon of jelly on a cold plate, wait 30 seconds, and push it with a fingertip; it should wrinkle. Black currant jelly often sets in the eight to nine minutes given, sometimes sooner.
- SkimmingSkim the foam after the boil rather than fussing at it throughout, or add a small knob of butter at the end to disperse it. Foam left in the jars looks cloudy but is harmless.
- SealingPaper discs stuck down with egg white were the Victorian answer to an airtight cover and are not one now. Use sterilised jars with two-piece lids, either water-bath processed for 10 minutes or, for small batches, filled hot and kept in the refrigerator and eaten within a couple of months.
- YieldRoughly 1.5 lb of finished jelly per pint of juice, or three of the half-pound pots the book prices. Two pounds of black currants yields somewhere near a pint of juice, depending on ripeness and how patiently you let the bag drip.
Black currants were a kitchen-garden staple in Britain long before they were a commercial crop, valued as much for the sickroom as the table: black currant syrup and jelly were standard domestic remedies for sore throats, and jellies of this kind were often kept specifically for stirring into hot water. The fruit's very high pectin and acid content is why the method here is so brief and so confident — no added lemon, no long boil, no test beyond a cold plate. Cassell's prices the jelly by the half-pound pot, a reminder that late-Victorian household books were written for readers weighing homemade preserves against shop-bought. The cross-reference to "Currant Jelly, Black" points the reader to a related entry elsewhere in the dictionary.