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Fruit Conserve
Five pounds of grapes, wash and simmer one-half hour; strain, measure juice and add equal parts of sugar; return to fire and when it begins to boil add one pound of raisins, one-half pound of currants, juice of one large or two small oranges, one cup of walnuts; boil fifteen minutes.
— Mrs. Herbert Dederick
A grape conserve of the old sort: fruit juice cooked down with sugar, dried fruit and nuts to a spoonable, loose-set preserve rather than a firm jelly. The proportions are sound, but a few of the terms need translating.
- The grapesMost likely Concords or a similar slip-skin American grape, picked ripe rather than overripe. Their pectin and acid are what give the conserve any set at all; seedless table grapes will give a thinner, flatter syrup.
- "Equal parts of sugar"The original does not say whether by weight or by volume, and either reading was current; cup for cup with the strained juice is the simpler course. Measure the juice after straining and match it, rather than working from a fixed figure.
- Currants means driedPaired with raisins in a list like this, "currants" are dried Zante currants, not fresh red or black currants off the bush. Half a pound is about 1 1/2 cups.
- StrainingSimmer the whole grapes until the skins burst and the pulp collapses, then push through a sieve or run through a jelly bag. A bag gives a clearer conserve; a sieve gives more body and a little sediment.
- The fifteen minutesThat is a guide, not a rule, since evaporation depends on your pan. Test on a chilled plate or take it to 220F for a soft set. Overcooked, the dried fruit turns leathery and the sugar tastes scorched.
- Walnuts lastWalnuts -- the original adds them with the raisins, so they boil the full fifteen minutes. Adding them at the end of the boil, or after it, keeps them firmer and reduces the darkening and slight bitterness long-cooked walnuts can give.
- Yield and keepingA large batch, more than the four or five half-pints one might expect from the sugar alone. The recipe gives no directions for sealing; refrigerate and use within a month, or follow current water-bath canning directions for jam if you want it shelf-stable.
- ServingA conserve of this sort served as a condiment as much as a spread, and would sit as well beside roast pork, ham or cold fowl as on toast.
A "conserve" in nineteenth-century American usage was generally distinguished from jam or jelly by its mixture of fruits and its nuts and raisins, which made it richer and suited to serving with meat. Grape conserves of this pattern became common after the Concord grape was introduced commercially in the 1850s and spread as a dooryard vine across the Northeast, where a single arbor could produce more fruit than a family could eat fresh. Oranges were shipped north and inland by rail through the later nineteenth century, and cooks used them, as here, for acidity and perfume in a preserve otherwise built from garden and pantry. Community collections like this one, gathered under a contributor's name, preserve exactly this sort of household arithmetic: five pounds of grapes, whatever the vine gave, stretched with a pound of raisins.