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Cranberry Jelly
Prepare juice as in general directions, add one pound sugar to every pint, boil and skim, test by dropping a little into cold water (when it does not mingle with the water it is done), rinse glasses in cold water before pouring in the jelly to prevent sticking. The pulp may be sweetened and used for sauce.-C. G. & E. W. Crane, Caldwell, N. J.
A bare-bones jelly formula from an era when cooks knew the general method and needed only the ratio. Cranberries are so high in pectin and acid that this works with no added pectin at all.
- "Prepare juice as in general directions"The general directions are not reproduced here; the usual period method is to simmer washed cranberries with just enough water to cover until the skins burst and the fruit collapses, then drain through a jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth. For a clear jelly let it drip without pressing; squeezing the bag clouds the result.
- The sugar ratioOne pound of sugar to one pint of juice is about 2 1/4 cups sugar to 2 cups juice. Cranberry juice carries enough pectin and acid to set at that proportion, which is why no lemon or commercial pectin appears here.
- The cold-water testA drop that holds its shape in cold water instead of dispersing indicates the syrup is near the jelly point, roughly 220F, about 8F above boiling; a candy thermometer or the sheeting-off-a-spoon test will get you there with less guesswork.
- SkimmingSkim the foam as it rises rather than at the end. Foam left in suspension turns the finished jelly cloudy and can trap air pockets in the glasses.
- "Rinse glasses in cold water"Jelly of this period went into tumblers sealed with paraffin or a paper cover, which is no longer considered a safe seal. Use standard canning jars, sterilised and hot, and either water-bath process the filled jars for 5 to 10 minutes or refrigerate and use within a few weeks.
- Cooking timeDo not boil in a large batch and walk away. Cranberry jelly reaches the setting point quickly, and overcooked it turns stiff and dark.
- The pulpThe drained pulp, pressed through a sieve to remove skins and seeds and sweetened to taste, gives a cranberry sauce. Doing both from one batch of fruit was the point of the note.
- YieldA pound of cranberries simmered with water yields roughly a pint of juice, which with a pound of sugar gives about two to three half-pint jars of jelly, plus sauce from the pulp.
The cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is one of a small handful of fruits native to North America that entered commercial cultivation, beginning in the sandy bogs of Massachusetts and New Jersey in the first half of the nineteenth century. The recipe's brevity is characteristic of the genre. Jelly-making was assumed knowledge, so the "general directions" for extracting juice were printed once at the head of the section and every subsequent fruit needed only its sugar ratio. The instruction to use the leftover pulp for sauce reflects a household economy in which nothing that had already been cooked and sweetened was thrown away.