Bar-Le-Duc Currant Jelly

Clean and pick overripe currants, detaching the stems; to each pound of fruit allow a pound of granulated sugar. Pour the sugar on the currants, set in a cool place and let them stand over night. Next morning turn the berries carefully into a colander so as not to break them and let the juice drip from them. If the mixture is too thick to let the juice flow freely add a little water. Put the syrup over the fire and cook steadily for half an hour. Drop in the currants and cook slowly for fifteen minutes. Put up in jelly glasses or small jars. This is nearly as good as the imported bar-le-duc, and is better at the end of a few months than when first made.

Currant Ice

Boil two cupfuls of sugar and one cupful of water until it spins a thread, remove from the fire, add three cupfuls of currant juice, strain, chill, turn into the freezer, pack in salt and ice, and partially freeze. Beat the whites of two eggs until stiff, fold in two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and add to the first mixture. Continue freezing until solid and let stand two hours to ripen.

Black Currant Pudding

Make a biscuit batter and roll about one-fourth inch thick. Wash currants and shake, so just a little water is left on them. Place in baking dish, insert a cup or bowl (according to amount of fruit) in center of dish, add sugar to taste, lay on crust and bake. When done remove cup at table and the juice which has cooked into cup instead of over crust is like wine sauce.

Currant Croquettes

Pour one cupful of hot milk over two cupfuls stale cake crumbs, stir and cook over boiling water for five minutes, then add one-half cupful of currants, one-half cupful of chopped nut meats and one-eighth teaspoonful of salt. Remove from the fire, add immediately the beaten yolks of two eggs, flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla and spread on a buttered plate to cool. Shape into croquettes, roll in fine crumbs, dip in beaten egg, roll again in crumbs and fry in deep hot fat. Serve with sauce.

Currant Relish

Five cupfuls of clear red currant juice, four cupfuls of white sugar, pinch of salt, two cupfuls of stoned raisins, the grated yellow rinds of two oranges and the juice and pulp of the oranges. Boil about twenty minutes and skim carefully. If the raisins and juice look clear and rich it is cooked enough. Put in jars and seal.

A Currant Punch

Put in a saucepan one cupful of sugar, three quarts of water and two tumblers of red currant jelly. Let it boil until the jelly is thoroughly dissolved, then add the juice of three oranges and three lemons. Strain into a punch bowl and add to the beverage a large piece of ice. Scatter over the top of the punch a handful of ripe red currants stripped from their stems.

Meringue

Beat the whites of two eggs until stiff. Continue beating while adding gradually two tablespoonfuls powdered sugar. Add one-half tablespoonful lemon juice, spread on pie and bake fifteen minutes in a slow oven.

Red Currant Wine

One quart of water to each quart of juice. One pound of sugar to each quart of syrup. Crush the currants by rubbing them through a fine hair sieve, measure the juice, and add as much water; then pour over the sugar, allowing one pound to each quart; let this stand all night to dissolve; put into stone bottles, and as it works over refill the bottles for two or three days. Put it in a warm place for three weeks, and then lightly cork until it stops fermenting, then cork firmly, and watch that they do not fly; bottle in six months, taking care not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. The longer it stands before bottling the better.