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Black Currant
Jelly.—The juice of black currants makes excellent
jelly in the ordinary way if we boil a pint of black currant
juice with a pound of sugar till it sets; but a mould of
black currant jelly suitable to be used as a sweet at dinner
can be made by adding less sugar and thickening the juice
with corn-flour, allowing about a tablespoonful to every
pint, and pouring it into a mould or plain round basin. The
mould can be ornamented as follows, and we will suppose a
pudding-basin to be used for the purpose. We will suppose
the mould of jelly to have been turned out on to a clean
sheet of white paper. Pick some of the brighter green
black-currant leaves off the tree, and place these round the
base of the mould with the stalk of the leaf pushed
underneath and the point of the leaf pointing outwards. Now
choose a few very small bunches of black currants, wash
these and dip them into very weak gum and water, and then
dip them into white powdered sugar. They now look, when they
are dry, as if they were crystallised or covered with
hoar-frost. Place one of these little bunches, with the
stalk stuck into the mould of jelly, about an inch from the
bottom, so that each bunch rests on a green leaf. Cut a
small stick of angelica and stick it into the top of the
mould upright, and let a bunch of frosted black currants
hang over the top. If we wish to make the mould of jelly
very pretty as a supper dish, where there is a good top
light, we can dip the green leaves into weak gum and water
and then sprinkle over them some powdered glass.
Red Currant
Jelly.—Red currant jelly can be made in exactly a
similar manner, substituting red currants for black.
Raspberry Jelly.—The
raspberries should be picked very ripe, and two or three
dozen of the best-looking ones of the largest and ripest
should be reserved for ornamenting. If possible, also gather
some red currants and mix with the raspberries, on account
of the colour, which otherwise would be very poor indeed. It
will be found best to rub the raspberries through a hair
sieve, as the addition of the pulp very much improves the
flavour of the jelly. The sieve should be sufficiently fine
to prevent the pips of the raspberries passing through it.
The juice and pulp from the raspberries and currants can now
be thickened with corn-flour as directed in the recipe for
blackberry jelly. Raspberry leaves should be placed round
the base of the jelly and a ripe raspberry placed on each.
The best-looking raspberry can be placed on the top of the
mould in the centre of two or three raspberry leaves stuck
in the jelly.
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