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Cranberry Marmalade
1 pint cranberries 1 lb. raisins 1 cup corn syrup 1 cup brown sugar Pick over and wash cranberries and raisins. Cover and cook them in double boiler until broken to pieces. Add syrup and sugar. This should be cooked so that it will form a stiff mold when cold. This is very nice packed in tiny individual marmalade jars.
A two-fruit marmalade that relies on the cranberry's own pectin and acid rather than added pectin. The double boiler is there to keep the sugar from scorching during a long cook.
- A pint of cranberriesCranberries were sold by dry measure; a pint is about 12 oz, or roughly 3 cups of whole berries. A standard 12-oz supermarket bag is the right amount.
- RaisinsOne pound is about 3 cups. Dark seedless raisins will give a deeper colour; chop them coarsely if you want a spreadable texture rather than whole fruit suspended in jelly.
- Add a little water at the startThe berries release plenty of juice once they burst, but the raisins absorb liquid fast. A quarter cup of water in the top of the double boiler keeps things moving until the cranberries break down, which takes 20 to 30 minutes over simmering water.
- Corn syrupThe recipe does not specify, but light corn syrup is the likelier reading. Corn syrup was marketed in this period as a sugar extender, and it does help keep the marmalade from crystallising, though it sets more softly than sugar alone.
- The set is the whole recipe"Cooked so that it will form a stiff mold when cold" means cooking well past the point where it looks done in the pot. A double boiler will not get you there quickly; once the fruit is broken and the sweeteners are dissolved, finish over direct low heat, stirring, until a spoonful chilled on a cold plate wrinkles when pushed. Expect 20 to 30 minutes more.
- StorageThis is not a tested canning procedure and the jars are not processed, so treat it as a refrigerator preserve: cool, cover, and keep chilled for up to a month. If you want shelf-stable jars for gifts, follow a current water-bath canning method.
- YieldHard to pin down, but a pound of raisins and two cups of sweetener come to roughly five cups before the cranberries are counted, so expect appreciably more than three cups; enough to fill a good number of the small jars the recipe mentions.
Cookbooks of this period leaned hard on corn syrup, which its makers marketed vigorously as a cheaper, less crystal-prone partner to sugar, and recipes splitting the sweetener between the two are common. The pairing of cranberries with raisins is older: cranberries are acidic and high in pectin but thin in body, and dried fruit was one way to give a cranberry conserve bulk and sweetness before commercial pectin was widely available. The placement under "The Company Shelf" suits the period, when a small stock of preserves in decorative jars served for unexpected visitors and as inexpensive hostess presents, and cranberry's colour suited the winter holidays.