Certo Recipes for Making Perfect Jellies and Marmalades

“Mother Nature's Jell Maker” — the 1922 leaflet that promised no more boiling the flavour away, with an exact recipe for every fruit.

Curious Facts

Everything below is in the book — each one links straight to the page it comes from.

  1. The recipes themselves are patented. The Douglas Patents page lists them by date and country, and grants "license to make and use the same… only granted to users of Certo" — jam-making as licensed intellectual property. Read it in the book →
  2. Cherry jam calls for a hammer. Tie three tablespoons of cherry pits in a cloth and "crush with hammer," then simmer them with the fruit to deepen the flavor before fishing them out. Read it in the book →
  3. Cranberries are pinched until they pop. For Cranberry Sauce De Luxe, "pinch or crush berries with the fingers so that they 'pop' or open up" — and slit the stubborn ones with a knife. Read it in the book →
  4. There is jelly made from ketchup. Jellied Tomato Ketchup: a cup of ketchup, three cups of sugar, half a bottle of Certo — boil, stir, done. Read it in the book →
  5. One jelly needs no stove at all. Cold Process Jelly is mixed in a pan standing in boiling water, poured into glasses and kept cold — with the honest warning, "Use within a month." Read it in the book →
  6. Coffee becomes dessert jelly. Coffee Jelly Dessert swaps double-strength coffee for the water and adds lemon juice — served with unsweetened whipped cream. Read it in the book →
  7. Mint jelly is dyed and steeped. The mint jelly takes a teaspoon of vegetable coloring, and if fresh spearmint leaves are used — about a cupful — they are fished out at skimming time. Read it in the book →
  8. Rhubarb breaks the one-minute rule. The general directions decree a hard boil of exactly one minute — "except RHUBARB which should be boiled 3 minutes." Peach jam earns a bonus: twenty drops of almond extract after skimming. Read it in the book →
  9. Canned-fruit juice was too valuable to pour out. "Save the juices from your canned fruits for jellies" — a one-line recipe that turns the canning shelf's by-product into a product. Read it in the book →
  10. The marmalade keeps its bitterness on purpose. Grapefruit Marmalade advertises "the full flavor and bitter tang of Grapefruit," while the orange-and-lemon version promises the opposite: "Has no bitter flavor." Read it in the book →
Rights & ReuseThe complete text of Certo Recipes for Making Perfect Jellies and Marmalades (1922) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.