#Throwback50years, originally published in 1976 – issue #2
Mrs. Carnegie’s Bread and Butter Pickles:
This recipe comes from a woman who spent most of her life on a farm near Pembroke, Ontario. Like most of the women of her nature, she could make hay just as wel as pickles and often did both. Soak two cups of thinly sliced cucumbers and two or three thinly sliced onions in four cups of water with ¼ cup of coarse salt.
Let stand overnight. In the morning, drain very well. Make a sauce of one cup vinegar, one cup white sugar, ½ tsp. mustard powder, ½ tsp. celery seed, 1/8 tsp. tumeric. Heat well. Add cucumbers and onions. Simmer until just tender and seal in hot jars.
Wild Chokecherry Jelly:
Pick six quarts of chokecherries. Stem and rinse. Combine berries with one pint of water. Cook together until juice can be easily pressed from soft berries. Pour berries and juice into a cloth-lined colander (not aluminum!) and allow to drip into a pan
without squeezing. Measure juice. Using equal sugar and one package of pectin for each quart of juice, follow package directions to prepare jely.
Wild Elderberry Jelly:
This can be made in the same fashion except that pectin is not needed if enough under-ripe berries are used. Use 1½ cups water for each quart of berries (before stemming) and 1½ cups sugar for each cup of juice.
Raspberry “Vinegar” Refresher:
Pack raspberries into quart jars. Fill in the spaces with white vinegar. Seal jars and let stand several weeks. Strain through a colander lined with cloth. Seal juice in sterilized containers and put away. To serve, sweeten to taste with honey or sugar and dilute with ice water.
Spring Jam:
Every spring you can clean leftover strawberries and rhubarb out of your freezer by turning them into this season’s jam: Combine four cups each of rhubarb and strawberries. Boil together for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add 3½ cups sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil and skim for 12 minutes until it reaches the “jam stage.” Pour into six medium sized, hot sterilized jars. Wax or process in boiling water bath.
Do-It-Yourself Pectin:
Pectin to set jams and jellies can be made easily at home if you prefer home-made to store bought: Gather green apples and weigh. For each pound of apples, measure out one pint of water. Scrub the apples and take out blemishes. Boil sliced apples in the water for about 20 minutes.
Strain through fine cloth. Set aside juice and strain apple pulp again.
You should get about three cups of juice for every pound of apples. Boil the juice in a large open kettle for about 40 minutes or until reduced by at least half. Pour the mixture into hot sterilized half-pint jars and close. Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. This will keep almost indefinitely, but opened jars must be used quickly.
Easy Grape Juice:
Wash and stem firm, ripe Concord grapes. Place one cup of grapes in a quart jar which has been washed and rinsed in hot water. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup white sugar if desired. Fill jar with boiling water to within one-half inch of top.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. In this case, boiling water bath should be merely simmering to preserve best flavour of grape juice. When you wish to serve, simply shake and strain, leaving out skins and pits. This economical juice costs only about 16 cents per quart to make even if you have to buy grapes.
