Apple Jam
INGREDIENTS. - Apples of one sort, preserving sugar, lemons.
AVERAGE COST, 4d. to 6d. per lb. pot.
Peel, core and slice the apples, and to every lb. allow lb. of sugar and the grated rind and juice of half a lemon. Put the apples into a jar, stand this in a saucepan of boiling water, and let them stew until quite tender.
Next put the apples into a preserving pan, crush the sugar to small lumps, and add it, with the grated lemon-rind and juice, to the apples. Simmer these over the fire for 1/2 hour, reckoning from the time the jam begins to simmer properly; remove the scum as it rises, and when the jam is done, put it into pots for use.
Place a piece of oiled APPLE AND BLOSSOM. paper over the jam, and, to exclude the air, cover the pots with tissue paper dipped in the white of an egg, and stretched over the top. This jam will keep good for a long time.
TIME.- From 3 to 4 hours to stew in the jar; 1/2 hour to boil after the jam begins to simmer.
SEASONABLE.-Make this in Autumn, when apples can be had at a reasonable price.
Apple Jelly. I. - INGREDIENTS. - Apples, water, loaf sugar, lemon juice.
AVERAGE COST, 6d. per pot.
Pare, core and cut the apples into slices, and put them into a jar, with water in the proportion of 1/2 pint to each lb. Place them in a cool oven, with the jar well covered, and, when the juice is thoroughly drawn and the apples are quite soft, strain them through a jelly-bag. Measure the juice and to every quart allow 2 lbs. of crushed APPLE JELLY. a sugar. Put juice and sugar into preserving pan, boil together for rather more than 1/2 hour, removing the scum as it rises, then add the lemon-juice just before it is done, and put the jelly into pots for use. This preparation is useful for garnishing sweet dishes, and may be turned out for dessert.
TIME. The apples to be put in the oven over-night, and left till morning; rather more than 1/2 hour to boil the jelly.
SEASONABLE. This should be made in Autumn.
Apple Jelly. II. - INGREDIENTS.- 6 lbs. of apples, 2 lemons, water; to every pint of juice allow lb. of loaf sugar. AVERAGE COST, 6d. per pot.
Pare, core, and cut the apples into pieces, and put them in a preserving-pan with sufficient cold water to cover them and the peel of the lemons, which must be taken out when the apples are sufficiently flavoured.
Let them boil for an hour; then drain the syrup from them through a jelly-bag, and measure the juice; to every pint allow lb. of loaf sugar, and boil these together for hour, removing every particle of scum as it rises, and keeping th the jelly well stirred, that it may not burn; add the lemon-juice, strained, just before the jelly is done, and store away in small pots.
TIME.-1 hour to boil the fruit and water; 3/4 hour to boil the juice with the sugar.
SEASONABLE. - Make this in Autumn..
A plain single-fruit jam that depends on cooking the apples gently to a purée before any sugar goes near them. Most of the work is unattended; the active boiling is short.
- The sugar proportionThe line "to every lb. allow lb. of sugar" has lost its fraction, so the original ratio cannot be recovered with certainty. Comparable recipes of the period use anything from equal weights down to three-quarters sugar to fruit; three-quarters is a reasonable reading, and the lower the sugar the shorter the keeping time.
- Preserving sugarThis is simply large-crystal white sugar, which dissolves slowly and throws less scum. Granulated sugar works identically here; jam sugar with added pectin is unnecessary, since apples supply their own.
- Choose one variety"Apples of one sort" is deliberate — mixed varieties break down at different rates and give a patchy set. A firm cooking apple such as Bramley collapses to purée readily and is high in both acid and pectin.
- The jar in boiling waterThis is a water bath, a way of stewing fruit without scorching it over an open coal fire. A heavy covered saucepan over low heat, or a covered dish in a 300F oven, does the same job in about an hour rather than three or four.
- Knowing when it is doneHalf an hour of proper simmering is a guide, not a rule. Test for set at 220F on a sugar thermometer, or by the wrinkle test on a chilled saucer; apple jam thickens quickly at the end and catches easily, so stir the base.
- Covering the potsOiled paper laid on the hot surface and tissue brushed with egg white was the standard nineteenth-century seal, and it relies on a very high sugar content to work. Use sterilised jars with lids, filled hot and sealed at once, and refrigerate after opening.
- YieldNo quantity is given. Two pounds of prepared apples with sugar in proportion fills roughly three 1 lb jars.
- Cost and seasonThe prices in pence per pot belong to the book's own period and have no modern equivalent. The autumn timing still holds: windfall and late-season cooking apples are cheapest, and cooking apples are good in pectin.
Apple jam sits at the humble end of the Victorian preserve cupboard — no expensive imported fruit, no brandy, just the produce of an English orchard glut and as much sugar as the household could spare. The instruction to stew the fruit in a covered jar standing in boiling water reflects kitchens where the only heat was a coal range with unpredictable hot spots; a water bath gave gentle, even cooking that would not catch. Sugar had fallen steeply in price after the excise duty on it was reduced and finally abolished in the 1870s, which is a large part of why domestic jam-making expanded so sharply in the second half of the century and why books of this kind carry pages of preserves. The egg-white-and-tissue seal described here was ordinary practice long before screw-top jars and wax discs became common household items.