The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

perfect, and not over-ripe fruit, cut the stalks half an inch from the fruit, and then arrange the latter in wide-mouthed bottles. Now dissolve good cane loaf sugar, broken small, in brandy, using a pint of brandy for every 21b. of sugar, mix it thoroughly, and when perfectly melted pour it on to the cherries, being careful to cover them thoroughly. Cork the bottles very tightly to make them airtight, and store them in a very cool place. A clove or two, or a piece of stick cinnamon may be put into each bottle with the fruit. Walnuts in Brandy. — Choose the walnuts before they are altogether ripe, and peel them carefully to keep them as whole as possible, throwing them into cold water as you peel them. Now bring some water to the boil, throwing in the nuts, but be careful to lift the pan from the fire the moment you see it is going to boil up again, then drain them off into more cold water, acidulated with a little lemon juice (use enough lemon juice to give the water a noticeable but not too strong acid flavour), meanwhile, boil some good cane sugar to the small thread (i.e., till on dipping your finger and thumb into cold water, and then into the sugar, you can draw out a tiny thread between them), drain the nuts, place them in a basin, pour the boiled sugar on them, and leave them in this for the night. Next day strain off the sugar, again boil it up till on testing it as before, it will form a longer thread than the first time, before it snaps ; again let the nuts stand in this for a night; next day boil the sugar again till the thread will be longer still, and again leave them a fourth night, when you again boil up the sugar till on testing it, you can stretch your finger and thumb to their very widest without breaking the thread ; now put the nuts in a pan, and pour on to them the syrup mixed with an equal quantity of good brandy, place it on the fire and let it heat just short of boiling point; then fill up the bottles with the fruit and brandied syrup in such a way that the nuts will float in the liquid, and cork down closely. Walnuts prepared in this way are considered abroad an excellent stomachic, and as of very easy digestion. The inner peels, cut away from the nuts for this preparation, are also utilised abroad in this way : Rinse them well in fresh cold water, then drain, and lastly dry them gently in a clean cloth (remember that this cloth will be hopelessly stained, so do not use a good one). Now place them in bottles, with a few pieces of lump sugar, or better still sugar candy, fill up the bottles with good brandy, cork down closely, and store in a cool place. This is considered an excellent digestive, and invaluable in cases of colic. A liqueur- glassful is a dose. Figs in Syrup. — Choose nicely coloured, but not quite ripe, figs (those that form the second crop in England, and never entirely ripen, are excellent for this), prick them all over, dropping each as done into cold water, and finish off exactly as described in the recipe for dessert fruits at the beginning of this chapter. Green Oranges in Syrup (Chinois). — Choose nice well- shaped and even- sized green oranges such as one frequently gets on greenhouse orange-trees.