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Rhubarb Conserve
One quart of rhubarb cut in inch pieces, one quart sugar, onehalf pound seeded raisins chopped, one-quarter pound English walnuts chopped, three oranges chopped fine.
— Mrs. W. P. Bell
TO MAKE ANY KIND OF JELLY QUICKLY.
One pound of sugar to one pint of juice; heat the sugar as hot. as possible in the oven (care must be taken not to burn or dissolve it); boil the juice five minutes, add the hot sugar, stir it well and when it has boiled again one minute, set it off and fill your glasses. Observe the time strictly.
— Mrs. George S. Harding
Mrs. Bell gives an ingredient list and trusts the cook to know the rest, which was normal for a church-and-village collection. Here is what the list assumes, plus notes on the jelly method printed with it.
- The missing methodNo method is given. A conserve of this type would be combined in a wide heavy pot, left to stand until the sugar draws juice from the rhubarb, then simmered and stirred until thick enough to mound on a cold spoon; the boiling time varies with the pan and the fruit, so go by the spoon rather than the clock. Nuts are generally added near the end of cooking.
- A quart of rhubarbMeasured cut and loosely packed, that is about 1 1/4 lb of trimmed stalks. The sugar is measured by volume too: one quart is about 1 3/4 lb, so there is rather more sugar than rhubarb by weight, before the raisins and oranges are counted.
- Discard the leaves entirelyRhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid and other irritants and are not edible. Use only the stalks, trimmed at both ends.
- "Three oranges chopped fine"This most likely means the whole fruit, peel included, which supplies pectin and bitterness. If your oranges have thick, tough skins, pare away the white pith; if the fruit you have is very large, judge by bulk rather than counting to three.
- Raisins and walnuts"English walnuts" is simply the common walnut as opposed to the native black walnut, which is far stronger. Seeded raisins means the seeds have been removed — ordinary seedless raisins need no work.
- On the jelly receiptHeating sugar in the oven was a real technique: adding hot sugar keeps the boil going so the mixture reaches the setting point fast and the flavor stays fresh. The receipt gives no temperature, only "as hot as possible" without burning or dissolving it. It works only with juice that already has good pectin and acid, such as currant, crab apple or underripe grape.
- Sealing"Fill your glasses" means open-kettle filling, in glasses of the sort usually sealed with paraffin. That is no longer considered sound. Refrigerate what you make and use it within a month, or process filled jars by a current tested water-bath schedule.
- YieldAbout four to five half-pint jars from the conserve, depending on how far you reduce it.
Conserve, in nineteenth-century American usage, meant a preserve carrying more than fruit and sugar — dried fruit, citrus, and nuts, richer and chunkier than jam and meant for the tea table or to eat with cold meat rather than just spread on toast. Rhubarb earned it a place because rhubarb arrived in late April, weeks before any other fruit; it was long called pie plant in rural New York for its use in pies, and a cook with rhubarb, a box of raisins, a bag of walnuts and a few store oranges could put up something festive out of the first thing the garden offered. The pairing of the conserve with Mrs. Harding's quick jelly method on the same page is typical of community cookbooks, in which preserving receipts often cluster together.