Fruit Juices

As sauces for desserts and for summer beverages for sick or well, the pure juices of fruits are most wholesome and delicious.

So useful are they and so little trouble to prepare, that no housewife should allow the fruit season to pass by without putting up a full stock. 

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, grapes, and cherries are especially desirable. In preparing them, select only the best fruit, ripe, but not over-ripe.

Extract the juice by mashing the fruit and slowly heating in the inner cup of a double boiler, till the fruit is well scalded; too long heating will injure its color. Strain through a jelly bag and let it drain slowly for a long time, but do not squeeze, else some of the pulp will be forced through. Reheat slowly to boiling and can the same as fruit. It may be put up with or without sugar.

If sugar is to be used, add it hot as for jelly, after the juice is strained and reheated to boiling. For strawberries and currants, raspberries and cherries, use one cup of sugar to a quart of juice. Black raspberries and grapes require less sugar, while blueberries and blackberries require none at all, or not more than a tablespoonful to the quart.

A mixed juice, of one part currants and two parts red or black raspberries, has a very superior flavor.

RECIPES.

Grape Juice, or Unfermented Wine.—Take twenty-five pounds of some well ripened very juicy variety of grapes, like the Concord. Pick them from the stems, wash thoroughly, and scald without the addition of water, in double boilers until the grapes burst open; cool, turn into stout jelly bags, and drain off the juice without squeezing. Let the juice stand and settle; turn off the top, leaving any sediment there may be. Add to the juice about four pounds of best granulated sugar, reheat to boiling, skim carefully, and can the same as fruit. Keep in a cool, dark place. The wine, if to be sealed in bottles, will require a corker, and the corks should first be boiled in hot water and the bottles well sterilized.

Grape Juice No. 2.—Take grapes of the best quality, picked fresh from the vines. Wash well after stripping from the stems, rejecting any imperfect fruit. Put them in a porcelain or granite fruit kettle with one pint of water to every three quarts of grapes, heat to boiling, and cook slowly for fifteen minutes or longer, skimming as needed. Turn off the juice and carefully filter it through a jelly bag, putting the seeds and skins into a separate bag to drain, as the juice from them will be less clear. Heat again to boiling, add one cupful of hot sugar to each quart of juice, and seal in sterilized cans or bottles. The juice from the skins and seeds should be canned separately.

Another Method.—Wash the grapes, and express the juice without scalding the fruit. Strain the juice three or four times through muslin or cheese cloth, allowing it to stand and settle for some time between each filtering. To every three pints of juice add one of water and two cupfuls of sugar. Heat to boiling, and keep at that temperature for fifteen minutes, skim carefully, and bottle while at boiling heat. Set away in a cool, dark place.

Fruit Syrup.—Prepare the juice expressed from strawberries, raspberries, currants, or grapes, as directed above for fruit juices. After it has come to a boil, add one pound of sugar to every quart of juice. Seal in pint cans. It may be diluted with water to form a pleasing beverage, and is especially useful in flavoring puddings and sauces.

Currant Syrup.—Boil together a pint of pure currant juice and one half pound of best white sugar for ten minutes, and can or bottle while at boiling temperature. One or two spoonfuls of the syrup in a glass of water makes a most refreshing drink. Two parts currants and one of red raspberries may be used in place of all currants, if preferred.

Orange Syrup.—Select ripe and thin-skinned fruit. To every pint of the juice add one pound of sugar, the juice of one lemon, and a little of the grated rind. Boil for fifteen minutes, removing all scum as it rises. If the syrup is not clear, strain through a piece of cheese cloth, and reheat. Can and seal while boiling hot.

Lemon Syrup.—Grate the yellow portion of the rind of six lemons, and mix with three pounds of best granulated white sugar. Add one quart of water and boil until it thickens. Strain, add the juice of the six lemons, carefully leaving out the pulp and seeds; boil ten minutes, and bottle. Diluted with two thirds cold water, it forms a delicious and quickly prepared lemonade.

Lemon Syrup No. 2.—To every pint of lemon juice add one pound of sugar; boil, skim, and seal in cans like fruit.

Blackberry Syrup.—Crush fresh, well-ripened blackberries, and add to them one fourth as much boiling water as berries; let them stand for twenty-four hours, stirring frequently. Strain, add a cup of sugar to each quart of juice, boil slowly for fifteen minutes, and can.

Fruit Ices.—Express the juice from a pint of stoned red cherries, add the juice of two lemons, one cup of sugar and a quart of cold water. Stir well for five minutes, an freeze in an ice cream freezer. Equal parts currant and red raspberry juice may be used instead of cherry, if preferred.

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