Strawberries To Preserve In Currant Jelly Recipe

Boil all the ordinary strawberries you can spare in the water in which

you mean to put the sugar to make the syrup for the strawberries. Take

three quarters of a pound of the finest scarlet or pine strawberries;

add to them one pound and a quarter of sugar, which dip in the

above-mentioned strawberry liquor; then boil the strawberries quick, and

skim them clear once. When cold, remove them out of the pan into a China

bowl. If you touch them while hot, you break or bruise them. Keep them

closely covered with white paper till the currants are ripe, every now

and then looking at them to see if they ferment or want heating up

again. Do it if required, and put on fresh papers. When the currants are

ripe, boil up the strawberries; skim them well; let them stand till

almost cold, and then take them out of the syrup very carefully. Lay

them on a lawn sieve, with a dish under them to catch the syrup; then

strain the syrup through another lawn sieve, to clear it of all the bits

and seeds; add to this syrup full half a pint of red and white currant

juice, in equal quantities of each; then boil it quick about ten

minutes, skimming it well. When it jellies, which you may know by trying

it in a spoon, add the strawberries to it, and let them just simmer

without boiling. Put them carefully into the pots, but, for fear of the

strawberries settling at the bottom, put in a little of the jelly first

and let it set; then put in the strawberries and jelly; watch them a

little till they are cold, and, as the strawberries rise above the

syrup, with a tea-spoon gently force them down again under it. In a few

days put on brandy papers--they will turn out in a firm jelly.