Fine Currant Syrup, or Sirop de Groseilles

Instructions

1. Express the juice from some fine ripe red currants, gathered in dry weather and stripped from the stalks. Strain it.
2. Put it into a new, or perfectly clean and dry, earthen pitcher and let it stand in a cellar or some cool place for twenty-four hours, or longer should it not then appear perfectly curdled.
3. Pour it gently into a fine hair-sieve and let the clear juice drain through without pressure.
4. Pass it through a jelly-bag or a closely-woven cloth.
5. Weigh it, and add as much good sugar broken small as there is of the juice.
6. When the sugar is dissolved, turn the syrup into a preserving-pan or stewpan and boil it gently for four or five minutes, being careful to clear off all the scum.
7. Twelve hours afterwards, put the syrup into small dry bottles; cork them and store in a cool but dry place.
8. To use: mixed with water it affords a delicious summer beverage, particularly suited to invalids. It also makes a fine isinglass jelly and an incomparable sweet-pudding sauce.
9. A portion of raspberry or cherry-juice may be mixed with that of the currants at pleasure.