IT is easy to make good jam at home if a few simple rules are followed. Excellent jams can, it is true, be bought, but they are generally too sweet, a large proportion of sugar being used in order to make the jam keep for a considerable time.

Rule 1.—Use only fresh fruit which has been gathered in dry weather.

2. Allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to one pound of all fruit, except stone fruit. Stone fruit requires an extra quarter of a pound of sugar. Break the sugar small, but do not pound it; if the sugar is pounded the syrup will not be clear. Use the best sugar, as the inferior kinds produce much more scum.

3. Never set the preserving-pan flat on the fire. If you do, the fruit will stick to it, and burn. Raise the pan on a trivet a little above the fire, and not exactly over the hottest part. Stir the jam with a wooden spoon all the time that the sugar and fruit are boiling together. An iron spoon ruins both the flavour and the colour of jam. Stir gently at first, more quickly as the boiling of the jam proceeds. Skim off all scum as it rises.

4. Put the fruit into the preserving-pan, sprinkle in some of the sugar, and as the fruit juices, add the rest of the sugar by degrees. When the sugar is all dissolved bring the jam to the boil.

5. Never boil jam longer than twenty minutes. If it is boiled too long the jam will be sticky, but if not boiled enough it will not keep. When the scum ceases to rise, put a few drops of the jam on a cold plate, watch it for a minute, and if it sets, and does not flow freely, the jam is done.

6. Warm the jam-pots before you pour the hot jam into them; if you do not they may crack. Fill the pots to within half an inch of the top, and wipe off any drops spilt with a cloth wrung out in hot water. If this is not attended to, there will be great difficulty in scraping off the drops when the jam has cooled.

7. The day after the jam is made, and when it has become quite cold, lay a round of thin paper on the top of each pot. Then take a sufficient number of the vegetable parchment covers which are sold for tying over jam-pots, soak them for a minute or two in cold water, wipe them dry, stretch one over each pot, and tie it round with string. The parchment tightens as it dries, and excludes the air from the jam. When the covers are dry, write in ink on each the name of the jam and the date.

8. Always keep jam in a cool, dry place. Damp makes it mouldy, heat makes it ferment.

9. Never put one pot of jam exactly on the top of another, but set one row of pots on the edges of the row beneath, leaving a clear space in the centre of each pot.

Different fruits require different treatment when made into jam. Thus, strawberries must be carefully stirred, raspberries must be mashed with a wooden spoon; and both these fruits, being soft and juicy, require less boiling than the drier kinds. Dry fruits, such as apples, should always be put first into a covered jar set in a pan of boiling water, and kept there until they are thoroughly softened. Fruit, with the exception of the very juicy kinds, takes longer to boil than sugar, so that it is well to cook the fruit partially before adding the sugar. Over-boiled sugar spoils the texture of jam.

Rhubarb jam requires the addition of a little root-ginger and a few strips of lemon-peel.

Orange Marmalade.—Allow for every pound of oranges one pint of water and three-quarters of a pound of sugar.

Pare Seville oranges very thin, and boil the rind till tender. Boil it in plenty of water for about three-quarters of an hour. At the end of this time the orange rind should be so tender that a straw will pierce it. Then cut it into very thin strips about half an inch long. Take off the tough white coat of each orange, and throw it away. Then scrape out the pulp and juice very carefully, and throw the pips into cold water. When they have remained in the water for a short time, squeeze them through a cloth, and add a pint of the water in which the pips have been soaked to every three-quarters of a pound of the sugar. The reason for steeping the pips is that they yield a glutinous substance, which adds richness to the marmalade. Boil the syrup for twenty minutes, allowing three-quarters of a pound of sugar and one pint of water to every pound of orange pulp. Put the pulp and juice into the syrup, and boil for half an hour, carefully skimming off the scum as it rises. During the last five minutes add the shreds of orange-peel. Put the marmalade into pots, and tie them down next day.

Clear Orange Marmalade.—In this marmalade there are no shreds of orange-peel. Cut the oranges in half after they are peeled and freed from the white skin. Boil them for three-quarters of an hour, allowing one pint of water to twelve oranges. Strain off the juice, and boil it up sharp for ten minutes. Allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. Boil for twenty or five-and-twenty minutes till it jellies. Four oranges make a pound pot of marmalade. It is an improvement if half the peel taken from the oranges is grated finely, and boiled with the oranges.

Quince Marmalade.—Scald the quinces, pare, core, and quarter them. To four pounds of fruit add three pounds and a half of sugar. Take three pints of the water the quinces were scalded in, and boil in it both the parings and the cores. Strain the water, and add it to the quinces and the sugar. Let it stand all night. Next day set the quinces over a slow fire, and bring them very gradually to the boil, skimming and stirring them all the time they are cooking.

Crab-apples, Siberian crab-apples, and the fruit of the Pyrus Japonica, or Japanese quince, all make excellent preserve.

Crab-apple Marmalade.—Parboil the crab-apples, and pulp them through a sieve or colander. Pare six large common apples, boil them till quite soft, and pass them through the sieve, when they will yield all the liquid they contain. To every quart of crab-apple pulp add one gill of the liquid from the common apples; and allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to every pound of pulp. Boil all together for fifteen minutes, stirring the whole time.

Fruit Jellies.—In making fruit jellies only the clear juice extracted from the fruit is used. The fruit must be softened by being placed in a jar set in boiling water, after which the juice must be allowed to drip through a hair sieve or a piece of canvas. The fruit must on no account be squeezed or rubbed with the hand or spoon, but it may be pressed down by a plate with a weight set upon it. Boil the juice for ten minutes, weigh it, and when it boils up again, add half a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. Then boil the whole sharp for five or ten minutes more, skimming off all scum.

Clear Apple Jelly.—Pare and core half a peck of green apples, cut them up, and drop them as you cut them into two quarts of water. Pare two small lemons, cut them up, removing the pips, and add them to the apples, reserving the lemon-peel. Put the apple-parings and the cores with the apples, and boil all together very slowly till the fruit is quite a pulp. Then strain it through a jelly-bag, and to every pint of liquid add half a pound of lump sugar. Boil the whole very fast with the peel of the two lemons, skimming thoroughly all the time. It ought to jelly in three-quarters of an hour; try it by dropping a few drops on a cold plate. When sufficiently done take out all the lemon-peel, and pour the jelly into moulds or small pots.

Cranberry Jelly can be made in this way from the Russian and Swedish cranberries now sold, but cranberries will require a pound of sugar to the pint of juice. Cranberries should not be boiled longer than twenty minutes.

Medlar Jelly.—Gather the medlars when quite sound, wipe them well, and let them stew in the preserving-pan with just enough boiling water to cover them till they are in a pulp. Drain the fruit through a piece of canvas, but do not press the pulp. Weigh the juice, and allow half a pound of sugar to every pint. Boil it till quite clear, stirring and skimming well. When it jellies, pour it into small moulds, and let it set.

Currant Jelly (No. 1).—Strip red currants from their stalks, and put them into the oven. When quite juicy, pass them through a hair sieve or a coarse cloth. To every pint of juice allow a pound of loaf sugar well beaten and sifted. Heat the sugar on a dish in the oven, putting it between two sheets of foolscap paper, and when the currant juice has boiled for a couple of minutes, strew the sugar into it by degrees whilst the juice is boiling hot. It will jelly immediately, and gain flavour by keeping. Put it at once into pots.

Currant Jelly (No. 2).—To six pounds of red, white, or black currants add four pounds of sugar and half a pint of currant juice extracted from additional currants. Stir the fruit well together in a preserving-pan, set it on a brisk fire, and when it boils up, pass it through a cloth into a basin with a lip. Pour the jelly from the basin at once into pots. Let the pots remain uncovered for nine days, and then tie them up.

Blackberry Jelly.—Take six pounds of blackberries before they are quite ripe, pick them from the stalks, and put them into a jar. Tie the jar up closely, set it in a pan of water on the fire till the blackberries become pulp. Then strain the fruit through a cloth, and to one pint of juice add one pound of sifted sugar. Boil it to a jelly, and pour it into pots for use. Blackberry jelly is much improved if half the quantity of blackberries is used and the other half made up of bullaces or wild plums. But bullaces are now rare.

Scotch “Jam Jelly.”—This preserve is made from the berries of the mountain ash, gathered when they have become nearly (but not quite) ripe. Take off the stalks, and stew the berries in a jar set in boiling water. They take many hours’ stewing before they become tender, but in the end they make excellent jelly. For the mountain-ash berries allow a pound of sugar to a pound of pulp.

Damson Cheese.—Stew the damsons till tender in a jar set in boiling water. Rub them through a coarse sieve to take off the skins. Take out the stones, crack them, and blanch the kernels. Boil the cheese for one hour. Then weigh it, and add one pound of sugar to two quarts of the damson pulp. Boil it, stirring it well till it is thick. Keep the fire low, and boil the pulp very slowly. After the cheese has thickened well, leave off stirring; but it must boil quite to a candy, and may take seven hours. Put in the kernels a few minutes before the damson cheese is taken off the fire. The cheese will be done when it leaves the sides of the pan. A peck and a half of damsons will make ten pints of cheese. Cover the moulds when cold with paper dipped in brandy.

Brandy Cherries.—To every pound of Morello cherries, stalked but not stoned, add three-quarters of a pound of best loaf sugar. Take a few cherries, bruise them, and take as much juice from them as will make the sugar into a very thick syrup. Fill wide-mouthed bottles with the cherries, and prick each cherry all over with a fine needle. Let the syrup get quite cold, then pour it on the cherries, and fill up the bottles with good brandy.

Brandy Peaches.—Peel the peaches carefully with a silver dessert-knife, and as you do so put each peach into cold water. Choose a deep stone jar, put into it one pound of peaches covered with three-quarters of a pound of sifted sugar. Fill up the jar with good brandy. Set the jar in a pan of cold water on the fire, and let it gradually heat till the brandy is nearly boiling. Then let it get cold and tie up the jar closely.