The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

PINEAPPLES IN SYRUP.— Pineapples are preserved cut in slices in tins in syrup. It is a very delicious dish, and is always very popular served just as it is for dessert. Preserved pineapple can also be used for making a very nice sweet. I have already described how to make borders of rice under the heading of "Apricots in Tins." (See Apricots in Rice Borders.) The tin should be opened, and the pineapples piled up as high as possible in the centre of the dish. A little of the syrup can be coloured red ivith a little cochineal, and thickened with a little gelatine, to be poured round the base of the fruit between the rice border and the dish itself ; but the pale yellow colour of the pineapple is better as it is without the addition of the red colouring matter, though a little red rim round the bottom of the pineapple, between it and the rice border, looks very pretty. A still greater improvement to the dish is to surround the border of rice, outside the border on the dish, with a row of preserved greengages. Pineapples preserved this way are very often used for making pineapple pudding, a receipt for which will be found under the heading of “ Ginger, Preserved”—(see Ginger, Preserved)— the only difference being that preserved pineapple is used instead of preserved ginger. in syrup, and the syrup of the pineapple is used for the sauce instead of the syrup in which the ginger is. preserved. There is one more very nice compound that can be made with the assistance of slices of pineapple, On a cold winter’s night mix a good large glass of hot rum-and-water, taking care that the water is thoroughly boiling when it is mixed. Now take a slice of preserved pineapple and place it in the glass. This glass of pineapple rumpunch is extremely good. PINEAPPLES, WHOLE.— Pineapples are now preserved whole in tins, and are far superior to any pines that can be obtained in this country, with the exception of course of hothouse pines. Hothouse pines, which sometimes cost from one guinea to two guineas each, are necessarily a luxury in which only the rich can indulge. Nearly all the pines which are sent over to this country are cut abroad in an unripe state, and they are supposed to ripen afterwards by keeping. But they not merely ripen but “rotten” at the same time. Very often pineapples are sold in the streets at a shilling each or even less, but all who have tried them know, when they | are cut, how different the inside is from ! the really ripe pine. The advantage of | these pines is that they have been preserved whole, ripe, and really equal in flavour and appearance the most perfect hothouse pine which can be obtained. They are best served as they are at dessert) and the syrup in which they are preserved should of course be poured round their base. There are few dessert dishes more popular than these preserved pines.