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Spiced Grapes (Pulp the grapes putting)
Pulp the grapes, putting the skins into separate kettles, adding a little water to the skins. Let the skins simmer on the back of the stove. Put the pulps over the fire and let them cook until seeds can be separated from the pulps, then press them through a colander. Add the skins to the pulps after seeds are removed. For seven pounds of fruit add three and a half of sugar (light brown), one pint of vinegar (not too strong), two ounces of stick cinnamon and one ounce of whole cloves. Tie the spices in a muslin bag before putting them into the fruit. Let the mixture cook slowly uncovered until the juice becomes a thick syrup. Put into jars or glasses.
A spiced grape conserve of the slip-skin type, built on the fact that Concord-style grapes separate cleanly into skin and pulp. The whole method depends on that, so start with the right fruit.
- Use slip-skin grapes"Pulp the grapes" only works with American varieties such as Concord, Niagara or Catawba, whose skins pop off under thumb pressure. European (vinifera) grapes have skins that cling to the flesh, and the two-kettle division makes little sense with them.
- Why the skins cook separatelySkins need long, gentle simmering with a little water to soften and give up colour; pulp needs only enough heat to loosen the seeds before it goes through the colander. Cooking them together means either raw, leathery skins or scorched pulp.
- "Back of the stove"On a wood range this was the cool zone. On a modern burner it means the lowest setting, covered, cooked until the skins are tender, which may take half an hour or so.
- QuantitiesSeven pounds of fruit, three and a half pounds of sugar (roughly 7 to 8 cups packed light brown), one pint vinegar, 2 oz stick cinnamon and 1 oz whole cloves. One ounce of cloves is roughly 5 tablespoons, and two ounces of cinnamon is a large handful of sticks; the spice is meant to be assertive.
- Vinegar strength"Not too strong" reflects an era of variable homemade vinegar. Use a standard 5 percent cider vinegar as written, without diluting it, since the acid is what keeps the finished preserve stable.
- Judging the syrupCook uncovered and slowly; expect an hour or more of reduction. It is done when a spoonful dragged across the pan leaves a track that closes slowly, or when the mass mounds on a chilled saucer. Stir often near the end, as the brown sugar catches easily.
- Filling the jarsAn open-kettle fill into "jars or glasses" was normal in 1900 and is no longer considered a seal. Ladle hot into hot half-pint jars, leave a quarter inch of headspace and process 10 minutes in boiling water, or skip processing and keep the jars refrigerated and use within a couple of months.
- Yield and servingServing -- This is a condiment rather than a jam: it was put on the table with roast pork, ham, goose or cold meat.
Spiced fruit belongs to the sweet-pickle tradition that fills a chapter in many American cookbooks of the 1880s to 1910s, when the pantry, not the refrigerator, carried a household through winter and vinegar-and-sugar preserves were a common partner to heavy roasted meat. The two-kettle method here suits the Concord grape, introduced commercially in Massachusetts in the mid-nineteenth century and by 1900 widely grown in eastern gardens and grape arbours; its thick, intensely coloured slip skin and its large seeds made separating, seeding and reuniting the fruit a usual way to handle it, in butters and pies as well as pickles. Whole spices tied in muslin, rather than ground, keep the syrup clear, and light brown sugar was the cheaper, less refined grade on the shelf.