Currant Paste

Instructions

1. Stalk and heat some red currants as for jelly, boiling them from 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Pour off three parts of the juice, which can be used for that preserve, and press the remainder, with the pulp of the fruit, closely through a hair sieve reversed.
3. Boil it briskly, keeping it stirred the whole time, until it forms a dry paste; from 1-1/2 to 2 hour is allowed for this.
4. Then for each pound (when first weighed) add seven ounces of pounded sugar, and boil the whole from twenty-five to thirty minutes longer, taking care that it shall not burn.
5. This paste is remarkably pleasant and refreshing in cases of fever, and acceptable often for winter-desserts.
6. Proportions: Red currants boiled from 5 to 7 minutes, pressed with one-fourth of their juice through a sieve, boiled from 1-1/2 to 2 hour. To each pound 7 oz. pounded sugar: 25 to 30 minutes.
7. Note: Confectioners add the pulp, after it is boiled dry, to an equal weight of sugar at the candy height; by making trial of the two methods, the reader can decide on the better one.