Red Currant Jelly

Put fruit into double
pan and simmer until
juice is well drawn
from the currants, from
3/4 to 1 hour; then
strain.
Measure the juice and
to each pint allow
3/4 lb of loaf sugar, put
these into preserving
pan and boil from
20 minutes to 1/2 hour

[Loose page inserted into recipe book]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And loaf sugar is?

E. said...

From 'Food timeline' - see links

"Large and prosperous households bought their white sugar in tall, conical loaves, from which pieces were broken off with special iron sugar-cutters. Shaped something like very large heavy pliers with sharp blades attached to the cutting sides, these cutters had to be strong and tough, because the loaves were large, about 14 inches in diameter at the base, and 3 feet high [15th century]...In those days, sugar was used with great care, and one loaf lasted a long time. The weight would probably have been about 30 lb. Later, the weight of a loaf varied from 5 lb to 35 lb, according to the moulds used by any one refinery. A common size was 14 lb, but the finest sugar from Madeira came in small loaves of only 3 or 4 lb in weight...Up till late Victorian times household sugar remained very little changed and sugar loaves were still common and continued so until well into the twentieth century..."
---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David [Penguin:Middlesex] 1977 (p. 139)

Anonymous said...

I made this, just took loaf sugar as normal sugar and it is very deicous! Great recipe.

E. said...

I'm glad you liked it - I'm still at the growing the red currants stage.