Recipe

ROWAN JELLY

A diff erent sort of recipe this month, inspired by the bumper crops of Rowan berries weighing down the trees across Lochaber. Using them as a source of nutri� on was quite common in the past, although the tart jelly is very rarely found today, but is some� mes used by connoisseurs of game. This recipe comes from a 1930s cook book, so may require a bit of individual ‘interpreta� on’.

• METHOD •

Gather the berries when they are almost ripe. Wash them and put in a preserving pan with suffi cient water to cover them. Boil until soft and strain the liquid through a muslin bag. Allow 1lb (half kilogram) of sugar to every pint (1/2 litre) of juice, and boil the latter with the sugar for half an hour, skimming carefully. Apple juice added to the rowans is a decided improvement. To every pound (1/2 litre) of rowan juice allow a pound (1/2 litre) of apple juice, adding sugar to the latter – a pound to a pint. Leave to cool and set.