Original White House Cookbook

To EVERY pound of sugar allow one pound of fruit, one quarter pint of water. For this purpose, the fruit must be used before it is quite ripe and part of the stalk must be left on. Weigh the fruit, rejecting all that is in the least degree blemished, and put it into a lined saucepan with the sugar and water, which should have been previously boiled together to a rich syrup. Boil the fruit in this for ten minutes, remove it from the fire, and drain the greengages. The next day boil up the syrup and put in the fruit again, let it simmer for three minutes, and drain the syrup away. Continue this process for five or six days, and the last time place the greengages, when drained, on a hair-sieve, and put them in an oven or warm spot to dry ; keep them in a box, with paper between each layer, in a place free from damp PRESERVED PUMPKINS. To EACH pound of pumpkin allow one pound of roughly pounded loaf sugar, one gill of lemon juice. Obtain a good, sweet pumpkin ; halve it, take out the seeds and pare off the rind; cut it into neat slices. Weigh the pumpkin, put the slices in a pan or deep dish in layers, with the sugar sprinkled between them ; pour the lemon juice over the top, and let the whole remain for two or three days. Boil all together, adding half a pint of water to every three pounds of sugar used until the pumpkin becomes tender ; then turn the whole into a pan, where let it remain for a week ; then drain off the syrup, boil it until it is quite thick, skim, and pour it boiling over the pumpkin. A little bruised ginger and lemon rind, thinly pared, may be boiled in the syrup to flavor the pumpkin. A Southern Recipe. . PRESERVING FRUIT. (New Mode.) Housekeepers who dislike the tedious, old-time fashion of clarifying sugar and boiling the fruit, will appreciate the following two recipes, no fire being needed in their preparation. The first is for “tutti frutti,” and has been repeatedly tested with unvarying success. Put one quart of white, preserving, fine Batavia brandy into a twogallon stone jar that has a tightly fitting top. Then for every pound of fruit, in prime condition and perfectly dry, which you put in the brandy, use three-quarters of a pound of granulated sugar ; stir everyday so that the sugar will be dissolved, using a clean, wooden spoon kept for the purpose. Every sort of fruit may be used, beginning with strawberries and ending with plums. Be sure and have at least one pound of black cherries, as they make the color of the preserve very rich. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apricots, cherries (sweet and sour), peaches, plums, are all used, and, if you like, currants and grapes. Plums and grapes should be peeled and seeded, apricots and peaches peeled and cut in quarters or eighths or dice ; cherries also must be seeded ; quinces may be steamed until tender. The jar must be kept in a cool, dry place, and the daily stirring must never be forgotten, for that is the secret of success. You may use as much of one sort of fruit as you like, and it may be put in from day to day, just as you happen to have it. Half the quantity of spirits may be used. The preserve will be ready for use within a week after the last fruit is put in, and will keep for a number of months. We have found it good eight months after making.