Cassell's dictionary of cookery

pound of ripe and sound Orleans plums into a jar, and place them in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire until they are so soft that the stones can be removed. Whilst this is being done, soften in the same way half a pound of cored and sliced apples. Turn both plums and apples into a preserving-pan. Put with them the juice of half a lemon and three-quarters of a pound of sugar, and boil quickly for three-quarters of an hour. Stir well to keep the fruit from burning. Pour the paste upon shallow dishes, and when it is cold cut it into lozenges, and dry these on a sieve before the fire. Keep them between, sheets of writing-paper in a tin box. Plum Marmalade. — Pick the stalks from the fruit, weigh it, gash it with a silver knife, and put it into a preserving-pan. Let it simmer gently until the fruit is quite soft, lift out the stones as they rise to the surface, and keep the plums well stirred to prevent their burning. Press tlie pulp through a coarse sieve. Mix with it three pounds of powdered sugar to every four pounds of fruit, allowing for the weight of the stones, and boil gently six or eight minutes longer. Pour the marmalade into jelly-i^ots, and cover closely. Plum Paste Sweetmeats. — Put the plums into a preserving-pan with just enough water to cover them, and let them simimer until quite soft. Strain the juice from them, and pass them through a sieve. Stir the pulp over the fire until it is quite dry. Great care will be required to keep it from burning. Weigh it, and mix one pound of powdered sugar with each pound of pulp. Stir it again over the fire until it leaves the pan with the spoon. Spread it out on a shallow dish, and as soon as it is cold stamp it into squares, diamonds, or rounds, and put these in a warm place until they are quite dry. When cold, store them in layers in tin boxes, with a sheet of writing-paper between each layer. If preferred, the paste may be kept in small jars, and covered over like jelly. Plum paste may be made of the plums from which jelly has been made. Time, according to the quality of the plums. Plum Porridge or Broth.— Plum porridge was a favourite dish two hundred years ago, but it is now almost obsolete, as it has been superseded by plum pudding. The following is a recipe of Queen Anne's time : — PLU ( 589 ) PLU Take ten pounds of the shin of beef, and two pounds of the neck, and boil these in three gallons of water for five hours. Strain the Hquor, and skim carefully. Put it back into the saucepan, with three pounds of stoned raisins, three pounds of stewed prunes, and two pounds of currants, and let the fruit boil gently for an hour. Take the crumb of a twopenny loaf, dip it into the liquid, and beat it smoothly with a fork. Mix with it the pulped prunes, an ounce of powdered cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves, half an ounce of grated nutmeg, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered mace. Put this mixture into the soup to thicken it, and boil for a quarter of an hour, stirring all the time to keep the soup from burning. Add sufficient sugar to suit the taste, a little salt, a quart of claret, and half a pint of sack. Cut some white bread into dice. Lay it in a soup tureen, put a piece of the meat over it, pour in the broth, and serve. Plum Pudding, Apple {see Apple Plum Pudding).