Rhubarb Jam
INGREDIENTS.-To every lb. of rhubarb allow 1¼ lb. of loaf sugar, the rind of lemon. AVERAGE COST, 4d. per lb. pot.
Wipe the rhubarb perfectly dry, take off the string or peel, and weigh it; put it into a preserving-pan, with sugar in the above proportion; mince the lemon-rind very finely, add it to the other ingredients, and place the preserving-pan by the side of the fire; keep stirring to prevent the rhubarb from burning, and when tho sugar is welldissolved, put the pan more over the fire, and let the jam boil until it is done, taking care to keep it well skimmed and stirred with wooden or silver a RHUBARB. main in it for a few minutes; strip off the spoon. Pour it into pots, and cover down shells, put the yolks in a mortar and pound them very smoothly; add to them, very gradually, the mustard, seasoning and vinegar, keeping all well stirred and rubbed down with the back of a wooden spoon.
Put in the oil very slowly, and when this is thoroughly mixed with the other ingredients, add the yolk of a raw egg, and stir well, when it will be ready for use. This sauce should not be curdled; and to prevent this, the only way is to mix a little of everything at a time, and not to cease stirring. The quantities of oil and vinegar may be increased or diminished, according to taste, as many persons would prefer a smaller proportion of the former ingredient.
Green Remoulade is made by using tarragon vinegar instead of plain, and colouring with a little parsley-juice. Harvey's sauce, or chili vinegar may be added at pleasure.
TIME. hour to boil the eggs.
Restorative Jelly. (Invalid's Cookery.)-INGREDIENTS for a quart.-1 bottle of sherry, 2 oz. of sugar candy, 3 oz. of isinglass, 2 oz. of gum arabic. AVERAGE COST, 5s. with oiled and egged papers.
TIME. If the rhubarb is young and tender, 3/4 hour, reckoning from the time it simmers equally; old rhubarb, 1 to 1½ hour.
SEASONABLE from February to May.
Rhubarb and Orange Jam (to resemble Scotch Marmalade). INGREDIENTS.-1½ quart of finely-cut rhubarb, 6 oranges, 1 lb. of loaf sugar. AVERAGE CosT, 6d. per pot.
Peel the oranges; remove as much of the white pith as possible, divide them and take out the pips; slice the pulp into a preserving-pan, add the rind of half the oranges cut into thin strips, and the loaf sugar, which should be broken small. Peel the rhubarb, cut it into thin pieces, put it to the oranges and stir all together over a gentle fire until the jam is done. Remove all the scum as it rises, put the preserve into pots, and, when cold, cover down.
Should the rhubarb be very old, stew it alone for 1/4 hour before the other ingredients are added. TIME. to 1 hour.
SEASONABLE from February to May.
RHUBARB PUDDING.
Two rhubarb preserves, both worked on the old principle of equal weights of fruit and sugar. Rhubarb is very low in pectin and very high in water, so the sugar and the boiling are doing all the work.
- Lemon rind quantityThe ingredient line reads "the rind of lemon" with the number missing. One lemon per 2-3 lb of rhubarb gives a good flavour without dominating; pare it thinly so no white pith goes in.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a solid cone and broken up as needed. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct equivalent; preserving sugar, with its larger crystals, dissolves more slowly and throws less scum.
- Preserving-panA wide, shallow, heavy pan of unlined copper or brass. Any wide stainless or enamelled pan works; width matters more than depth, since evaporation is what sets the jam.
- "By the side of the fire"This means low heat to dissolve the sugar completely before boiling begins. Sugar that is still gritty when the jam comes to the boil will crystallise in the pot. Only once the pan is grit-free should it go over full heat.
- The boiling timesThree-quarters of an hour for young rhubarb, and longer for old (the upper figure is garbled in the text), reckoned from the time it simmers steadily rather than from a hard boil; such times belong to an open fire of uneven heat. On a modern burner, rhubarb jam will usually reach setting point in a good deal less time at a rolling boil. Judge by temperature -- about 220F/104-105C -- or by the wrinkle test on a chilled saucer, not by the clock.
- SetRhubarb has almost no pectin, so this sets softly. The lemon rind contributes a little; adding the juice, or a strip of pith tied in muslin and removed at the end, improves it. Long boiling to force a set only darkens and caramelises the fruit.
- Metal and the spoonThe instruction to use wood or silver is sound. Rhubarb stalks are strongly acidic (chiefly malic acid, with some oxalic) and will pick up a metallic taste from bare iron or aluminium.
- Covering the pots"Oiled and egged papers" means a paper brushed with oil laid on the surface of the preserve, with a second paper brushed with egg white stretched over the pot, which dried to a stiff seal. Sterilised jars with two-piece lids, filled hot and sealed at once, are the modern equivalent; store in the refrigerator once opened.
- YieldNeither recipe states a yield. A pound of rhubarb with its pound of sugar will give roughly a pound and a half of jam once boiled down.
- Rhubarb leavesUse only the stalks. The leaf blades carry enough oxalic acid to be genuinely poisonous and should be trimmed off and discarded.
Rhubarb reached English gardens as a medicinal plant long before it was eaten -- the dried root of Asian species was a purgative of the apothecary's shop, and the stalks only became a dessert crop in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, once cheap sugar made their sharpness bearable. Forced rhubarb, raised in market gardens near London as well as further north, was reaching the markets early in the year, ahead of other fruit, which fits the season given here as February to May, and the preserve helped fill the gap in the storecupboard between the last of the autumn jams and the first summer berries. The orange version is openly modelled on marmalade -- the book says so in its title -- and the strips of peel and the weight of sugar follow marmalade practice.