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Mulberry Jelly
1 1/2 pints mulberry juice 4 ounces of tapioca Sugar Extract the juice from the mulberries by placing them in a jar and bruising them with a wooden spoon; then place the jar--which must be covered--in a saucepan of boiling water. Let the water boil until the juice flows freely from the mulberries; then strain them through a fine hair sieve. Do not squeeze the mulberries, but let the juice drop slowly through. Crush the tapioca so that no lumps remain; then pour the mulberry juice over it, and let it stand all night. Boil it until it is quite clear, stirring to keep it from burning, and add sugar to taste. Pour into small molds which have been standing in cold water. Serve with cream.
Windfalls do quite well for this dish, and those who possess mulberry trees will find that the fruit can be utilized to great advantage in this way.
A tapioca-thickened fruit shape rather than a preserve — nothing here sets by pectin, and it is meant to be eaten within a day or two, not stored.
- The measurementsIf these are US pints, 1 1/2 pints of juice is 3 cups (about 700 ml); on the imperial pint of many British books it is 30 fl oz, nearer 850 ml. Four ounces of tapioca is a weight, roughly 2/3 cup of small pearl tapioca; "crush so that no lumps remain" means grinding the pearls down, which quick-cooking (granulated) tapioca already is.
- Extracting the juiceThe covered jar standing in boiling water is an improvised water bath. The recipe gives no time, only "until the juice flows freely," which may take an hour or so; a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water works the same way.
- Do not squeezeThis is the hinge. Pressing the pulp through the sieve pushes fine solids into the juice and the finished mould turns cloudy and slightly gritty instead of clear. A jelly bag left to drip, or a fine sieve lined with damp muslin, replaces the hair sieve.
- "Boil until quite clear"Clarity is the doneness test for tapioca; the grains lose their white centres. It may take 15 to 20 minutes at a gentle boil with near-constant stirring, since the starch catches and scorches readily.
- Sugar and acidRipe mulberries are sweet but low in acid and can taste flat. Sugar to taste is usually 1/2 to 3/4 cup for this quantity; a tablespoon of lemon juice stirred in at the end sharpens the flavour and brightens the colour.
- The mouldsStanding them in cold water leaves the insides wet so the set jelly slides out. Fill while hot, chill at least four hours or overnight, and dip briefly in warm water to turn out.
- YieldAbout 3 1/2 cups of mixture, which fills six small dariole moulds or teacups. Serve cold with pouring cream.
- About the fruitUse fully ripe, dark fruit; underripe red or pink mulberries are sour and astringent. The juice stains cloth and wooden spoons badly.
Mulberry trees were a fixture of older English gardens long before their fruit was thought worth a recipe — black mulberries (Morus nigra) were growing in England well before the seventeenth century, though their numbers were much increased by plantings encouraged under James I, part of an attempt to establish home-grown silk that came to nothing, since silkworms want the white mulberry. What remained was a great many long-lived trees dropping soft, staining fruit that bruises the moment it is picked and will not travel to market. That is exactly why the recipe ends where it does: windfalls do quite well, and a household with a tree had a glut and no way to sell it. Setting the juice with tapioca rather than boiling it to a true jelly is a thrifty solution, letting a cheap starch carry the fruit a long way.