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Directions for Above Jellies
Measure sugar and juice (or juice and water) into saucepan, stir and bring to a boil. Stir in CERTO and bring again to a full boil for 1 minute, except the 1 cup recipe which requires only a few seconds. Remove from fire, let stand 1 minute, skim and pour quickly . 23½ cups (14 lbs.) Water Juice 1 Lemon 64 level cups Sugar 1 bottle (scant cup) CERTO Vegetable coloring and Spearmint Extract or Leaves
This is the shared boiling procedure for a group of jellies printed above it in the original booklet, followed by a fragment of the ingredient table for one of them — almost certainly the mint jelly. The numbers as printed are garbled and should not be taken at face value.
- The figures are corrupt"23½ cups (14 lbs.)" and "64 level cups Sugar" are not workable quantities; they appear to be run-together column headings and figures from a table, and the original values cannot be recovered from this page. Do not scale anything from these numbers — use a current liquid-pectin jelly chart for the ratios.
- The hinge: a full rolling boil"Full boil" means a boil that cannot be stirred down, not a lazy simmer. Liquid pectin sets by being held at that boil for exactly one minute after it goes in; under-boiling gives syrup, over-boiling breaks the set.
- CertoCerto is liquid pectin, still sold. The "scant cup" bottle of the period is larger than the modern pouch (about 3 fl oz each, two to a box), so a period bottle is a little more than two modern pouches' worth.
- Sugar is structuralWith liquid pectin the sugar is part of the gel chemistry, not a matter of taste. Cutting it produces a sauce. Low-sugar sets need the powdered low-methoxyl pectins, which use a different method entirely.
- Order of operationsLiquid pectin goes into boiling sweetened juice, never the reverse; powdered pectin is the one that goes in cold. Mixing the two habits is a common cause of failure.
- "Skim and pour quickly"The one-minute rest lets foam rise; skim it or the jelly will be cloudy. Pour while still very hot, because liquid-pectin jellies begin to set within minutes.
- SealingBooklets of this era assumed melted paraffin poured over the top. Paraffin sealing is no longer recommended — mould can grow under the wax seal. Use two-piece lids and a boiling-water bath, timed to a current guide.
- Mint jellyThe vegetable colouring and spearmint are for the mint jelly served with lamb. Steep bruised leaves in the hot liquid and strain before adding sugar; extract goes in off the heat, since the aroma boils away.
Certo belongs to the moment when pectin left the kitchen and became a product. Before the First World War a cook relied on the natural pectin in tart apples, quince or underripe currants, and on long boiling to concentrate it — which is why old jelly recipes are so much about judging the sheet off a spoon. Commercial liquid pectin, extracted from apple pomace left over from cider pressing, is generally traced to the Douglas Pectin operation in western New York in the 1910s; General Foods later took the Certo brand on, and the little recipe booklets given away with the bottle did the real work of teaching housewives the new short-boil method. The style of this page is typical of them: one set of directions, then a table of quantities for a dozen different fruits, on the promise that any jelly could now be made in fifteen minutes and would set every time.