TO PRESERVE FRUIT AND MAKE JELLIES.

A kettle should be kept on purpose. Brass, if very bright, will do. If acid fruit is preserved in a brass kettle which is not bright, it becomes poisonous. Bell-metal is better than brass, and the iron ware lined with porcelain, best of all.

The chief art in making nice preserves, and such as will keep, consists in the proper preparation of the syrup, and in boiling them just long enough. English housekeepers think it necessary to do them very slowly, and they boil their sweetmeats almost all day, in a jar set into a kettle of water. Brown sugar should be clarified. The crushed and granulated sugars are usually so pure as not to require being clarified. Loaf sugar is the best of any. Clean brown sugar makes very good sweetmeats for family use; but the best of sugar is, for most fruits, necessary, to make such as will be elegant, and keep long.

Sweetmeats should be boiled very gently lest the syrup should burn, and also that the fruit may become thoroughly penetrated with the sugar. Furious boiling breaks small and tender fruits. Too long boiling makes sweetmeats dark, and some kinds are rendered hard and tough.

Preserves keep best in glass jars, which have also this advantage, that you can see whether or not fermentation has commenced, without opening them. If stone jars are used, those with narrow mouths are best, as the air is most easily excluded from them; and small sized ones, containing only enough for once or twice, are best, as the frequent opening of a large jar, injures its entire contents, by the repeated admission of the air. When sweetmeats are cold, cover them close, and if not to be used soon, paste a paper over the top, and with a feather, brush over the paper with white of egg. When you have occasion to open them, if a thick, leather-looking mould covers them, they are in a good state, as nothing so effectually shuts out the air; but if they are specked here and there with mould, taste them, and if they are injured, it should be carefully removed, and the jar set into a kettle of water (not hot at first, lest it should crack) and boiled. If the taste shows them to be uninjured, this mould may be the beginning of a leather-mould; therefore wait a few days, and look at them again, and scald them if necessary. A very good way of scalding them, and perhaps the easiest, is to put the jar (if it is of stone ware) into a brick oven as soon as the bread is drawn, and let it stand three or four hours. If the oven is quite warm a shorter time will do. This, or setting the jar into a kettle of water, as mentioned above, is much better than to scald them in the ordinary way, as they are exposed to the air when poured into the preserving kettle, and also when returned to the jar.

In making jellies, the sugar should be heated and should not be added, until the fruit-juice boils; and for this reason,—that the process is completed in much less time than if they are put together cold. Thus the diminution of the quantity, which long boiling occasions, is avoided, and the color of the jelly is much finer. Sometimes ladies complain that, for some inexplicable reason, they cannot make their currant jelly harden. The true reason was doubtless this,—that while making it, it was suffered to stop boiling for a few minutes. Let it boil gently but steadily, until by taking a little of it into a cold silver spoon, you perceive that it quickly hardens around the edges. A practised eye will readily judge by the movement of the liquid as it boils. Put jelly in little jars, cups, or tumblers; when it is cold, paste paper over the top and brush it over with white of egg. When this is used, the old method of putting brandy papers upon jelly is unnecessary. Particular attention is requested to these suggestions in regard to making jellies.

To make Syrup for Preserves.

Put a large teacup of water for every pound of sugar. As it begins to heat, stir it often. When it rises towards the top of the kettle, put in a cup of water; repeat this process two or three times, then set the kettle aside. If the sugar is perfectly pure, there will be no scum on the top. If there is scum, after it has stood a few minutes, take it off carefully. If the syrup then looks clear, it is not necessary to strain it.

To clarify sugar, put into every two pounds a beaten white of an egg. Five whites will do for a dozen pounds. Proportion the sugar and water as directed above, and after it has boiled enough take it from the fire, and let it stand ten minutes, then take the scum very carefully from the top, and pour off the syrup so gently as not to disturb the sediment. Have the kettle washed, return the syrup, and add the fruit. Some persons always strain the syrup through a flannel bag, but if the above directions are observed, it is not necessary. To use a flannel bag, always wring it very dry in hot water. This prevents a waste of the article strained. The bag should be soft, and not fulled up.

To preserve Apples.

Weigh equal quantities of Newtown pippins, and the best of sugar; allow one sliced lemon for every pound. Make a syrup, and then put in the apples. Boil them until they are tender; then lay them into the jars and boil the syrup until it will become a jelly. No other apple can be preserved without breaking. This keeps its shape, and is very beautiful. Quarter the apples, or take out the core and leave them whole, as you prefer. Other sour hard apples are very good preserved, but none keep as well, or are as handsome as the Newtown pippins.

Crab Apples.

Weigh them, and put them into water enough to almost, but not quite, cover them. Take them out when they have boiled three or four minutes, and put into the water as many pounds of sugar as you have of fruit, and boil it till clear, then set it aside till it is cold; skim it, and return the fruit to the kettle, and put it again on the fire. The moment it actually boils take it off; lay the fruit into the jar with care, so as not to break it.

Pine-apples.

Take equal quantities of pine-apple and the best of loaf sugar. Slice the pine-apple, put nearly or all the sugar over it. Put it in a deep pan, and let it stand all night. In the morning take the apple out and boil the syrup. When it begins to simmer, put the apple in and boil fifteen or twenty minutes. Tie a piece of white ginger in a bit of muslin, and boil it in the syrup before adding the apple. After boiling the whole ten or fifteen minutes, take out the apple and boil the syrup ten minutes longer; then pour it over the pine-apple. The apples should be ripe, and yet perfectly sound. If the syrup does not taste enough of ginger, boil it with the ginger till it suits the taste.

Pine-apples (without boiling).

Select large, fresh pine-apples. Pare them with a very sharp knife, having a thin blade. Carefully remove the little prickly eyes. Slice the fruit round and round about half an inch thick. Weigh a pound and a quarter of best granulated sugar, to a pound of fruit; and put into a glass jar a layer of sugar, and then a layer of fruit till it is filled. Make the layers of sugar very thick, else you will have a quantity left when the fruit is all laid in. Cover the jar close, and set it in a very cold place. This will keep perfectly, and have the taste of freshly sugared pine-apples a year afterward.

Blackberries.

To a pound of the low, running blackberries, allow a pound of fine sugar. Put them together in the preserving kettle, the fruit first, and the sugar on the top. These berries are so juicy that no water will be necessary; but they must begin very slowly to stew, and boil gently an hour. If blackberries are well done at first, they will not need scalding afterwards.

The high blackberries are not good preserved, but make an excellent syrup for medicinal purposes.

Currants.

Weigh equal quantities of sugar, and fruit stripped from the stems. Boil the fruit ten minutes, stirring it often, and crushing it. Add the sugar, and boil another ten minutes. Measure the time from the minute boiling commences. This keeps till currants come again. Clean brown sugar does very well. If it is to be used up in the course of the autumn, ten or twelve ounces of sugar to a pound of fruit is enough.

Cranberries.

Pour scalding water upon them, as this will make it much more easy to separate the defective ones from the good, than if they are washed in cold water. Measure the fruit, and allow two quarts of sugar for five of fruit. Boil the cranberries till they are soft in half as much water as fruit. Stir them very often. When they are soft add the sugar, and boil gently as possible half an hour more. They are very liable to burn, and therefore should be carefully attended to. If you like cranberry sauce very sweet, allow a pound of sugar for a pound of fruit.

Cranberries keep very well in a firkin of water in the cellar, and if so kept, can be stewed fresh at any time during the winter.

Damsons.

Wash, drain, and weigh them, put them into the kettle, and add the same weight of sugar and (to six or eight pounds) a pint of water. Boil them gently but steadily an hour; press the top ones down carefully, several times. They will break some, and the pricking each one with a needle before stewing them, makes little, if any difference. But they break less than other small plums, and are more solid. The syrup gives an elegant color to a beaten white of egg, for ornamenting custards or delicate puddings.

Other small sized blue plums are preserved in the same way.

Egg Plums.

To make the most elegant of all plum sweetmeats, take the Duane, or the Egg plums, ripe, but not very ripe. The skin can usually be pulled off. If you cannot remove it without tearing the fruit pour on boiling water, and instantly pour it off, or lay them into a cullender, and dip boiling water over them once. Allow equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and make the syrup in the usual way. Then lay in a few plums at a time, and boil gently five minutes; lay them into a jar as you take them from the kettle, and when all are done, pour the boiling syrup over them. After two days, drain off the syrup, boil it, and pour it upon them again. Do this every two or three days till they look clear. Then, if you wish the syrup to be very thick, boil it half an hour, and when cold, pour it upon the plums.

Peaches.

Select peaches that are ripe, but not soft. Pour boiling water upon them, and let it stand five or six minutes; then pour it off, and pull off the skins. This is the easiest way, and the most economical, as none of the peach is wasted with the skin. In a lot of peaches for preserving, there may be a few that you will have to pare; but most of them will part with the skin when scalded, except the cling-stones.

Weigh equal quantities of fruit (with the stones in), and fine sugar, and put them together in an earthen pan over night. The next day pour off the syrup, and boil it a few minutes; then set off the kettle and remove the scum. Return the kettle to the fire, and when it boils lay the peaches into it. Boil them very slowly three quarters of an hour, then lay them into the jars; boil the syrup fifteen minutes more, and pour over them.

The blood peaches are a beautiful fruit when preserved. The yellow cling-stone is handsome, but very inconvenient as the fruit adheres so closely to the stone. Almost any kind of peach is good, stewed in half a pound of clean brown sugar to a pound of stoned fruit, and will keep several weeks in the autumn.

Pears.

Weigh three quarters of a pound of sugar for a pound of pears. Boil the fruit whole, with the stems on in barely water enough to cover them, till they are tender, but not very soft. Then take them from the kettle, and put in the sugar, boil it ten or fifteen minutes, then set it off, and after removing the scum, put in the pears, and boil them till they begin to have a clear look. The difference in the size, and in the solidity of this fruit is so great that exact directions as to time cannot be given. When you have laid the pears into jars, boil the syrup another half hour, skim it if necessary, and then pour it upon the fruit. If you wish to give a more decided flavor to preserved pears, add peach water, or sliced lemons, when the syrup is boiling. Clean brown sugar does very well for preserving this fruit.

In selecting pears to preserve, choose such as are rather acid. The sweet ones are best baked. The Iron pears, if you will have patience to boil them long enough, make an excellent preserve. Divide them into halves or quarters if you choose. But they are often done whole. Boil them in just water enough, covered close, two or three hours. Make a syrup as directed above, and boil them in it an hour and a half.

Quinces.

Procure the apple, or orange quince. It is much less apt to be hard, when preserved, than the pear quince. Pare and core the fruit, and allow equal weights of fruit and fine sugar. Boil quinces in water enough to cover them, till they are tender; then take them out one by one with a silver spoon and lay them separately on a flat dish. Make a syrup and save all the water not used for it. When it is ready, return the fruit to the kettle, and boil it slowly three quarters of an hour, then lay it in jars, and pour the syrup over it. It is a good way to cut part of the quinces in halves, and preserve a part of them whole. Remove the cores with a fruit-corer, or if you have not this, use a common tap-borer; it answers the purpose very well.

Quinces with Sweet Apples.

To increase the quantity, without an addition of sugar, have as many large fair sweet apples pared, quartered, and cored, as will weigh one third as much as the quince. When the quince is boiled enough take it out, and put the sweet apples into the syrup, and boil them till they begin to look red and clear; an hour and a half will not be too long. Then put the quince and apple into the jars in alternate layers. The flavor of the quince will so entirely penetrate the apple, that the one cannot be distinguished from the other, and the sugar necessary to preserve the quince, will be sufficient for the apple.

Quinces (without boiling the Syrup).

Weigh twelve ounces of sugar for every pound of fruit. Boil the quinces in water enough to cover them, until they are so soft that care is necessary not to break them, in taking them out. Drain the pieces a little as you take them from the water, and put them into a jar in alternate layers with the sugar. Cover the jar close as soon as it is filled, and paste a paper over the top. Quinces done in this way are very elegant, about the color of oranges, and probably will not need scalding to keep them as long as you wish. If any tendency to fermentation appears, as may be the case by the following April or May, set the jar (if it is stone) into a brick oven after bread has been baked, and the quince will become a beautiful light red, and will keep almost any length of time, and never become hard.

It may be well to mention that in damp houses, none of the fruits preserved without boiling keep as well as those which are boiled. I have known a very few instances in which persons who were skilful in all these things did not succeed in preserving fruits in this way.

The water in which quinces are boiled should be saved. Boil the parings in it for a short time, if you intend to make a jelly, as long boiling them will make the water less clear. If you do not make jelly, boil the parings a good while, then strain off the water, and when it is cold bottle it. It will keep without the addition of sugar two or three weeks, and will give a fine flavor to apple-pies or sauce. There is so much richness in the parings of quinces that they should never be thrown away without being boiled. The fruit should therefore be washed and wiped before it is pared, and all defective parts removed.

[The pear quince, though it becomes hard when preserved, and therefore is not as good for that purpose as the orange quince, is very rich, and makes fine marmalade.]

Marmalade.

Wash and wipe the quinces, and take out any dark spots there may be on the skins. Cut them up without paring, cores and all; cover them with water in the preserving kettle, and boil them until they are soft enough to be rubbed through a coarse hair sieve. Then weigh equal quantities of pulp and refined sugar, and boil the mixture an hour, stirring it steadily.

Made with nice brown sugar, it is very good, though not quite as handsome. When brown sugar is used it should be stirred an hour and a half.

Put it into moulds or deep plates, and when it is cold put a paper over it, pasted at the edges, and brushed with white of egg. Marmalade can be kept for almost any length of time.

Strawberries.

Take large strawberries not extremely ripe; weigh equal quantities of fruit and best sugar; lay the fruit in a dish, and sprinkle half the sugar over it; shake the dish a little, that the sugar may touch all the fruit. Next day make a syrup of the remainder of the sugar and the juice which you can pour off from the fruit in the pan, and as it boils lay in the strawberries, and boil them gently twenty minutes or half an hour.

Another.

Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and put them together over night. The next day boil the strawberries long enough to scald without shrinking them,—six or eight minutes after they commence boiling. Then skim them out, and boil away the syrup half an hour; then pour it, hot, upon the strawberries.

Apple Jam (which will keep for years).

Weigh equal quantities of brown sugar and good sour apples. Pare and core them, and chop them fine. Make a syrup of the sugar, and clarify it very thoroughly; then add the apples, the grated peel of two or three lemons, and a few pieces of white ginger. Boil it till the apple looks clear and yellow. This resembles foreign sweetmeats. The ginger is essential to its peculiar excellence.

Pine-Apple Jam.

Grate sound but ripe pine-apples, and to a pound put three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar. Make a syrup and boil the grated pine-apple in it fifteen minutes.

Grape Jam.

Boil grapes very soft, and strain them through a sieve. Weigh the pulp thus obtained, and put a pound of crushed sugar to a pound of pulp. Boil it twenty minutes, stirring it often. The common wild grape is much the best for this use.

Quince Jam.

Weigh twelve ounces of brown sugar to one pound of quince. Boil the fruit in as little water as will do, until it is sufficiently soft to break easily; then pour off all the water and mash it with a spoon until entirely broken; put in the sugar, and boil twenty minutes, stirring it very often.

Another.

Chop a pound of quince (not boiled) in a pound of best sugar. When chopped fine, boil it twenty minutes. If you have some of the water in which quinces have been boiled, put in a gill; if you have not this, use pure water. This is very good, but not as easily digested as the other.

Raspberry Jam.

Pick the fruit over very carefully, as it is more apt than any other to be infested with worms. Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar; put the fruit into the kettle, or preserving pan, break it with a ladle, and stir continually. Let it boil quickly four or five minutes, then add the sugar, and simmer slowly a little while. The fruit, preserved in this way, retains its fresh taste much better than if the sugar is added at first. It is scarcely inferior to raspberries gathered from the vines. Some persons prefer to add currants or currant juice. A quart of currant juice to four quarts of raspberries is a good proportion. Boil it up, and put the fruit into it. If you wish to add currants, take fresh, ripe ones, a quart to three quarts of raspberries.

Strawberry Jam.

Put three pounds of sugar to two quarts of strawberries. Sprinkle the sugar upon the fruit, and let it stand an hour or two; then boil it twenty minutes, and meantime bruise the fruit with a spoon or ladle.

Apple Jelly.

Take any juicy, sour apples; wash and wipe them very clean, and cut them up without paring or taking out the cores. Put them into an earthen jar or baking pan with a very little water, and cover it with a paste of bread dough, rolled thin; (this keeps in the steam more effectually than a plate or lid). Put it in the oven after the bread is baked, and let it remain several hours. Then pour the whole into a linen bag, suspended in such a manner that it can be left to drip for some time. Put a pound of sugar to a pint of syrup; add any thing which is preferred, to flavor it. Boil ten minutes.

Another.

Take good sour apples, wash and wipe them, cut out any black spots upon the skin, and cut them up without paring or coring. Much of the richness of the apple is in the skin and core. Boil them in water enough to cover them, and when they become very soft, put the whole into a coarse linen bag, and suspend it between two chairs, with a pan under it, and leave it until it ceases to drip. Then press it a very little. Allow a pound of fine sugar to a pint of apple-syrup. If you choose, add the juice of a lemon to every quart of syrup. Boil up the apple-syrup, and skim it; heat the sugar in a dish in the stove oven, and add it as the syrup boils up, after being skimmed. Boil it gently twenty minutes or half an hour. Put it up in cups, tumblers, or moulds.

Crab-Apple Jelly.

Boil the fruit in water enough to cover it, until it is perfectly soft; then proceed just as directed in the last receipt.

Barberry Jelly.

This is made by boiling the fruit until the water is very strongly flavored with it; then put a pound of best sugar to a pint of juice. It should boil a little longer than currant or quince jelly.

Cranberry Jelly.

Wash and pick over the fruit carefully, and boil it till very soft in water enough to cover it. Then strain it through a hair sieve, and weigh equal quantities of the pulp and fine sugar. Boil it gently, and with care that it does not burn, fifteen or twenty minutes.

Currant Jelly.

Pick over the fruit, but leave it on the stems. Put it into the preserving kettle, and break it with a ladle or spoon, and when it is hot, squeeze it in a coarse linen bag until you can press out no more juice. Then weigh a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. Sift the sugar, and heat it as hot as possible without dissolving or burning; boil the juice five minutes very fast, and while boiling add the hot sugar, stir it well, and when it has boiled again five minutes, set it off. The time must be strictly observed. Jelly to eat with meat does very well made with brown sugar, but must boil longer.

Another (without boiling).

Squeeze the currants in a coarse linen cloth, without taking off the stems. Weigh the juice, and allow a pound for a pound. The sugar should be sifted, and stirred in with the hand until it feels smooth and well dissolved. Put it into glasses, and set them in the sun near a window for two or three days. Then cover as directed for preserves and jellies. This will taste like newly made currant jelly at the end of a year, if kept in a cool and dry place. It will not keep well in a damp house.

Quince Jelly.

Take the water in which quinces have been boiled for preserving and for marmalade, and boil the clean parings until they are soft. (See directions in the receipt for preserving quinces without boiling the syrup). Then strain the water while very hot through a flannel bag, and allow a pound of best sugar for every pint. Put the sugar on a dish into the stove oven to heat; boil up the quince water; if any scum rises, take it off, and then stir in the hot sugar, and boil it slowly, but steadily, twenty minutes, or half an hour. The time necessary will depend somewhat on the water being more or less strongly flavored with the fruit.

To Preserve Fruit in Water.

Pick the fruit when ripe, but not mellow; put it into strong glass bottles, with wide mouths; fill them with cold water, cork them and tie down the corks, or cover them with a piece of bladder wet in warm water, and tied over close; then set them into a flat-bottomed wash-boiler with a little hay under them, and cold water enough to come half-way up the sides of the bottles. Then heat the water gradually, and while that is doing melt some bees-wax and rosin, in equal quantities, and have it ready to use when the bottles are taken out of the boiler. This must be done as soon as the water in it begins to boil. Shut all the doors and windows before you do it, for a draught of air will break the bottles. Throw a cloth over them till they are a little cooled.

As soon as you can handle them at all, dip the necks of the bottles into the melted rosin and wax, so as to cover the whole cork and bladder, and make it secure against the entrance of any air. If, in two or three months, a coat of mould should form on the top of the water, that will do no harm; on the contrary it will help to exclude the air, and for two months more will not hurt the fruit.

When about to use the fruit, take off the mould carefully, so as not to break it, then pour out the fruit and the water into a stew-pan, add some sugar, and stew it as you would fresh fruit for immediate use, and it will have the same flavor.

All sorts of plums, cherries, gooseberries, apricots, and even peaches, may be so preserved.