Currants, to bottle

The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New ... · Bury, Charlotte Campbell, Lady · 1840
Source
The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;: In Which will Be Found a Large Collection of Original Receipts. 3rd ed.
Status
success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (14)
for the second method
Instructions (12)
  1. Gather your fruit perfectly dry, and not too ripe; cut each currant from the stalk separately, taking care not to bruise them; fill your bottles quite full, cork them lightly, set them in a boiler with cold water, and let them simmer a quarter of an hour, or according to the nature and ripeness of the fruit.
  2. By this process the fruit will sink; pour on as much boiling water as will cover the surface and exclude air.
  3. Should they mould, move it off when you use the fruit, and you will not find the fruit injured by it.
  4. Cork your bottles quickly, after you take them out of the water; tie a bladder over, and put them in a dry place.
  5. This method answers equally well for gooseberries, cherries, greengages, and damsons.
Another way
  1. Gather the currants quite dry; clip them off the stalks; if they burst in pulling off they will not do.
  2. Fill some dry common quart bottles with them, rosin the corks well over, and then tie a bladder well soaked over the cork, and upon the leather; all this is absolutely necessary to keep the air out, and corks in; place the bottles, with the corks downwards, in a boiler of cold water, and stuff hay between them to keep them steady.
  3. Make a fire under them, and keep it up till the water boils; then rake it out immediately, and leave the bottles in the boiler till the water is quite cold.
  4. Put them into the cellar in any vessel that will keep them steadily packed, the necks always downward.
  5. When a bottle is opened, the currants must be used at once.
  6. The bottles will not be above half full when taken out of the boiler, and they must not be shaken more than can be avoided.
  7. This process answers equally well for apricots, plums, and cherries.
Original Text
Currants, to bottle. Gather your fruit perfectly dry, and not too ripe; cut each currant from the stalk separately, taking care not to bruise them; fill your bottles quite full, cork them lightly, set them in a boiler with cold water, and let them simmer a quarter of an hour, or according to the nature and ripeness of the fruit. By this process the fruit will sink; pour on as much boiling water as will cover the surface and exclude air. Should they mould, move it off when you use the fruit, and you will not find the fruit injured by it. Cork your bottles quickly, after you take them out of the water; tie a bladder over, and put them in a dry place. This method answers equally well for gooseberries, cherries, greengages, and damsons. Another way. Gather the currants quite dry; clip them off the stalks; if they burst in pulling off they will not do. Fill some dry common quart bottles with them, rosin the corks well over, and then tie a bladder well soaked over the cork, and upon the[266] leather; all this is absolutely necessary to keep the air out, and corks in; place the bottles, with the corks downwards, in a boiler of cold water, and stuff hay between them to keep them steady. Make a fire under them, and keep it up till the water boils; then rake it out immediately, and leave the bottles in the boiler till the water is quite cold. Put them into the cellar in any vessel that will keep them steadily packed, the necks always downward. When a bottle is opened, the currants must be used at once. The bottles will not be above half full when taken out of the boiler, and they must not be shaken more than can be avoided. This process answers equally well for apricots, plums, and cherries.
Notes
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