BLACKBERRIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1939, Page 10

BLACKBERRIES

SOME GOOD RECIPES. To the children at least, and to those of us who even at a more mature age still love a carefree dress-as-you-please day in the open air, blackberry time means jolly picnics and glorious rambles over the hills in search of this tempting fruit. But there is another side to the picture—the same fruit, if gathered in any quantity, has to be turned into jam and jelly, quite apart from the popular pies and tarts for which the family will clamour. Still, it’s worth it, isn’t it; and here are a few recipes to vary the ways in which you can serve the luscious berries. Blackberry Trifle. ■ „ Stew about a pound of the berries slowly in water barely to cover. Add the- sugar when they are almost done. After cooling a little ,run the juice through a fine strainer over some sponge fingers in a dish. Top with thick custard, and put the trifle in the coolest place possible until you are ready to eat it. This is a delicious sweet —few people would tire of it. Use blackberry juice, too, for flavouring stewed apples, apple tarts and puddings, adding the unsweetened juice to the raw apples/ in place of the usual water for cooking. Put in the sugar afterwards. Bread-and-Butter Pudding. This can be prepared the evening before a busy day. Stew a pound of blackberries, and sweeten to taste. Line a greased basin with slices of bread and butter fitted closely together. Pour in enough stewed blackberries to fill half the basin,- then put tip a round of bread and butter, fill up the basin with the rest of the berries, and cover the fruit with another layer of bread and butter. Put a plate or saucer on the top of the basin with a weight on the plate. You must be sure to choose a basin small snough to be filled tightly right to the top, or the pudding will not turn out nicely. Turn it but next day and serve cold with custard. Alternatively, steam the pudding for an hour and serve hot with cream. Seedless Blackberry Jam.

To 4 pounds of blackberries allow pounds of sharp apples, i pint of water, and when the pulp is obtained add an equal weight of heated preserving sugar. Put the blackberries in the preserving pan with a little water and extract the juice, then simmer till tender. Rub through a sieve to extract the Seeds, Peel, core and slice up the apples, add the rest of the water to them and cook them till tender, then mash to a pulp. Add the sieved blackberries, stir well, weigh the pulp and allot sugar. Put the pulp into the pan, add the heated sugar, bring to the boil, stirring well, and simmer till a little sets when tested on a cold plate.

Although this jam is more trouble to make than ordinary blackberry jam it is worth taking the trouble, as the flavour is delicious, and it is seedless. Blackberry Vinegar.

The following recipe for a delicious drink, blackberry vinegar, .is kindly supplied for last week’s inquirer by “Janet,” who has had it for 39 years and remembers it as one her mother always used. Gather sound ripe berries, being careful, of course, not to pick them in rain. Cover the berries with vinegar in a closely-covered jar, and allow it to stand for 6 days, stirring every day. Then strain the liquor through muslin, and to every pint of the liquor add lib of sugar. Boil for 10 minutes, taking off the scum as it rises. When it is cold, bottle and cork it securely. Another version of this recipe states explicitly to allow a pint of vinegar to each quart of berries, leave standing for three days only before straining, and finally boil for 20 minutes; after which proceed as before. Blackberry Dumplings. These are a change from the apple .variety.. Make some pastry, roll it out fairly ttiidkly, and fit rounds into deep well-greased round buns tins. Fill the dumplings with apples, cut and quartered, mixed with blackberries and brown sugar. Pinch the pastry together well, and bake in a fairly hot oven for half an hour.