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Apple and Black Currant Marmalade
Use equal parts of currants and apples, cooking separately, when soft putting through colander and mixing pulp. Cook the pulp and juice (strained off) till thick, when add equal weight of sugar and cook till of desired consistency.
A two-fruit preserve with no quantities beyond ratios, which is typical of the period and works fine once you fix a batch size. The one thing to get right is the order of operations: the fruits are cooked separately, then combined as pulp, and the sugar goes in only after the mixed pulp has already thickened.
- Pick a batch sizeA workable starting point is 1 lb tart apples and 1 lb black currants; the finished yield depends on how far the pulp is reduced. "Equal parts" here is most likely equal weight of fruit rather than equal volume, since the recipe measures the sugar by weight.
- Why separatelyCurrants collapse in 10-15 minutes; apple quarters take longer and need more water. Cooking them apart means neither is overcooked, and it lets you sieve the currant seeds and skins out without losing apple pulp.
- Leave the apples whole-ishQuarter and core them but do not peel. Skins and cores carry most of the pectin, and the colander stage removes them anyway. Add just enough water to keep them from catching, about half a cup per pound.
- Colander means sieveThe aim is smooth pulp with the currant seeds and skins left behind, so use a food mill or a nylon sieve and a stiff spatula.
- Equal weight of sugarWeigh the combined pulp after it has thickened, then add the same weight in granulated sugar. Black currants are high in both pectin and acid, so no added lemon or commercial pectin is needed.
- Sugar goes in late, and dissolves before boilingStir over low heat until you cannot feel grains on the bottom of the pan, then raise the heat. Sugar added to thin pulp and boiled hard will scorch before the preserve sets.
- "Desired consistency" in numbersSetting point is 220F (105C) on a candy thermometer, or when a spoonful on a chilled plate wrinkles when pushed. Expect 10-20 minutes of hard boiling after the sugar dissolves.
- StorageThe recipe says nothing about sealing; a cool larder and a wax or paper seal would have been usual for the period. Refrigerate and use within a month, or process in a boiling-water canner following current tested times for jams.
"Marmalade" in English-language cookbooks of this period still carried its older, broader sense: any fruit pulp boiled thick with sugar, from the Portuguese marmelada, quince paste, rather than the citrus-and-peel preserve the word now implies. Black currants were more common in North American and British gardens then than now; in the United States, plantings were widely restricted in the early twentieth century because Ribes species host white pine blister rust, and the fruit largely disappeared from American cooking for generations. The pairing itself is practical rather than decorative: apple supplies bulk and mild flavor, and the currant supplies the acid, color and pectin that make the mixture set.