BERRIES AND PLUMS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 499, 14 January 1949, Page 22

BERRIES AND PLUMS

E sure to preserve plenty of fruit so that you will have no dessert problem in the winter. This year we haven’t the sugar-shortage to hamper us; nor do we have the sealing difficulties which worried us of late years, for the invaluable English preserving skin, which can be tied down over any size or shape of jar, and even used again and again, makes preserving perfectly easy. If you use the easy "stewing method" of preserving, simply make your syrup by boiling together sugar and water in the proportion of Y2lb. of sugar to a pint of water for 3 minutes. Begin at a low heat, and stir till the sugar is dissolved, then bring to boil. A heavier syrup tends to make the fruit rise in the jars. (The proportions given make a rich syrup.) Then drop in your prepared fruit, cook till soft, ladle into your hot sterilized jars (taking one at a time from the oven or vessel of hot water in which they are waiting), fill to the top with syrup, and tie down immediately with ‘the "skin." Raspberries may also be bottled in ‘the oven in their own juice, exactly as I described for strawberries last week. If there are little grubs in the raspberries, as often happens, just soak them for % hour in slightly salted waterabout a teaspoon of salt to a pint of water-when the grubs will come out. But drain the fruit, well before bottling afterwards, Red and black currants are delicious bottled in syrup; so, of course, are cherries. The dark one look the best, and the flavour is better if the stones are left in. Bottled Fruit Salad A most attractive and delightful fruit salad can be made by bottling together such fruits as red currants, raspberries, strawberries and cherries. Pack in each fruit in layers in the jars, cover with syrup, tie down and sterilise in waterbath. Black currants and rhubarb make a good combination for bottling; and so do raspberries and red currants. Summer Pudding This is a very old English favourite. If you have plenty of bottled fruits, you can have summer pudding in winter too! Grease a pudding-basin with a butterpaper. Cut a round of stale bread to fit in the bottom and line the sides with slices of bread cut in wedge shapes to fit in better, If you can spare the butter, let the bread be lightly spread. Have ready a mixture of lightly-stewed berriesgooseberries, raspberries, red and black currants-cooked in very little water with sugar, but not pulpy. Put in a few spoonfuls of fruit and juice, then cover with a layer of thin bread (lightly but-. tered or not). Now put another layer of fruit, and repeat alternate layers of bread and fruit till the basin is full, finishing with a round of bread cut to fit the basin nicely. Cover with a plate or saucer which fits tightly, and put a

weight on top. Set aside till next day, then turn out and serve with a jug of custard. Raspberry Preserve Here is an quthentic Yorkshire recipe, Four pounds of raspberries and 5lb. sugar. Place the raspberries on a large dish and put into a hot oven. Then place the sugar on another large dish and put that also into the oven, When they are very hot (not boiling), beat the fruit thoroughly, then gradually add the hot sugar, beating all well together until the sugar is dissolved. It is then ready to be put in the jars. This jam keeps well, and has the flavour of freshlygathered fruit. It is easily made; as there is no boiling or simmering. Black Currant Wine This is an English recipe, tried and trusted. Four gallons ripe currants; 2% gallons of water and 6lb, white

sugar. Put the currants into a large earthern jar with a cover to it. Boil the water with the sugar, carefully remove the scum as it rises on the liquid, and pour on the currants in a boiling state, Let it stand for 48 hours. Next, strain the whole through a: flannel bag into another vessel, return it thence into the jar, let it stand a fortnight to settle, then bottle off. Excellent for colds and coughs in winter. Plum and Raspberry Jam Three pounds of plums; 7lb. raspberries; 10]b. sugar. Cover barely the plums with water in a preserving pan; boil till thoroughly cooked, then strain through colander to get. rid of skins and stones. Add this plum pulp to the raspberries, which must be sound. Cook together for a few minutes, then add the warmed sugar, stirring in a little at a time. Add a pinch of salt, continue stirring till the sugar is all dissolved and jam is boiling. Then boil fast till it will set when tested-probably 4% hour, Black Currant Jam Put 3lb. black currants into the pan with 1% pints of boiling water, Boil for 10 minutes; then add 4%lb. sugar, stir till dissolved, and boil fast for approximately 10 minutes. Test before taking up.