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Four-Fruit Jelly
Take equal quantities of ripe strawberries, raspberries, currants, and red cherries, all should be fully ripe, and the cherries must be stoned, taking care to preserve the juice that escapes in stoning, and add it to the rest. Mix the fruit together, put it into a linen bag, and squeeze it thoroughly; when it has ceased to drip, measure the juice, and to every pint allow a pound and two ounces of the best loaf-sugar, in large lumps. Mix the juice and sugar together; put them in a porcelain-lined preserving kettle, and boil for half an hour, skimming frequently. Try the jelly by dipping out a spoonful, and holding it in the open air; if it congeals readily it is sufficiently done. This jelly is very fine. - Mrs. E. S. Miller.
A pre-pectin jelly that works because currants and slightly underripe cherries carry the set themselves. Everything hinges on the sugar-to-juice ratio and knowing when to stop boiling.
- The set comes from the currantsThere is no added pectin here, so the currants are structural rather than decorative. The recipe calls for equal quantities, so keep them to a full quarter of the mix, and do not be tempted to swap in more strawberries, which are among the weakest setters of the four.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was simply the most refined sugar sold, broken from a cone. Ordinary granulated white sugar is its direct equivalent and needs no adjustment.
- The ratio, in cupsA pound and two ounces per pint of juice is 18 oz sugar to 2 cups juice, or roughly 2 1/2 cups sugar per 2 cups juice. Weigh the sugar rather than scooping it; the proportion is what makes the jelly keep.
- Porcelain-lined preserving kettleThis means a non-reactive pan. Use stainless steel or enamelled cast iron, wide rather than tall, and no more than half full, as fruit juice and sugar climb hard when they boil.
- Squeezing the bagWringing a linen bag extracts the most juice but pushes fine pulp through, so the jelly will be less than crystal clear. For a bright jelly, hang the bag and let it drip unassisted; the yield will be noticeably lower.
- Half an hour is a guide, not a ruleDepending on pan width and fruit ripeness the set may arrive in 15 minutes or take 40. Boil hard and test rather than watching the clock; overboiled jelly turns dark and sticky.
- TestingThe contributor's method of cooling a spoonful in the open air works well. A thermometer reading of 220F at sea level, or a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer that wrinkles when pushed, both confirm it.
- Yield and keepingThe recipe gives no quantities, so the yield depends entirely on how much fruit you start with. The recipe assumes jars sealed and stored cool; for shelf storage, follow current water-bath canning times, otherwise refrigerate and use within a month.
Four-fruit jelly is generally traced to the French gelée de quatre fruits, a summer preserve built from whatever ripened together in late June and early July: strawberries, raspberries, currants and cherries, which in much of the northern hemisphere overlap by a week or two. The combination is practical as much as it is pretty, since red currants are sour and pectin-rich while strawberries are sweet and pectin-poor, and mixing them gives a jelly that sets firmly and still tastes of fruit. Recipes of this kind fill the jelly chapters of American community cookbooks of the 1880s, The Dixie Cook Book among them, because commercial bottled pectin did not reach home kitchens until the 1910s; until then a cook had to know which fruits would jell and hedge her bets by blending them. The attribution to Mrs. E. S. Miller is typical of the book, which carries named contributions rather than anonymous ones.