Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Boil the plums the last time about ten minutes. Plums, Orange, To Preserve (see Orange Plums). Plums, Orleans, To Bottle for Winter Use {see Orleans Plums, to Bottle for Winter Use). Plums Pickled like Olives. — Take some hard green plums which have been gathered before the stone was formed. Boil as much vinegar as will entirely cover them with a table-spoonfid of salt and half an ounce of mustard-seed to each pint of the liquid. Pour it hot over the fruit. Let it stand until the next day, then chain it off, boil again, and repeat the performance. When the plums are quite cold, put them into bottles, cover with vinegar, tie up securely, and store in a cool, dry place. Plums Pickled like Olives (another ■way). — Boil together some diU and fennel-seed in a mixture of white-wine vinegar and water. Put the plums into this while hot, let them simmer a little, set them on one side to cool, and then preserve in pots. Plums, Preserved Dry. —Divide the plums, take out the stones, and put them into a syrup made with half the weight of the fruit in sugar boiled with as much water as will dissolve it. Keep the plums covered with the syrup, and let them simmer very gently until they are tender without losing their shape. Lift the pan off the fire, and let the fruit stand in the syrup until the next day. Strain the syrup, boil it up with more sugar, so that there may be an equal weight of sugar and fruit, and let it boil almost to candy. Pour it out, and let it get cold. Put it back into the pan with the fruit. Let it simmer gently for a few minutes until the plums are quite soft. Let them remain in the syrup for three days, drain them, and spread them singly on dishes to dry. Time, five days. Or, j^ut the plums whole into a syrup made with their weight in sugar and as much water as will dissolve the sugar. Let them boil gently for about twenty minutes, then let them remain in the syrup until the juice flows freely, and boil them a second time. Lift out the plums carefully, one by one, put them into deep jars, and pour the syrup over them. Leave them until the next day, drain them, and spread them singly on dishes to dry. Or, take plums which are fully grown but not ripe ; prick them, put them into a pan of cold water, and let them remain until it is on the point of boiling. Let them cool, and drain them in a sieve. Take as many pounds of sugar as there are of fruit, and boil it to a strong syrup with as much water as will dissolve it. Put the plums in, and boil them gently for twenty minutes. The next day boil them again until the sugar is ready to candy. Pour the plums into deep jars, and let them stand all night in a cool oven. Let them get cold, then lift them out, and spread them singly on dishes to dry. Plums, Preserved, for Making Pies. — Divide the plums, and take out the stones. Put them into a deep jar, place this in a saucepan of boiling water, and let them boil gently until the juice flows freely. Then with each pound of the fruit put an ounce of crushed loaf sugar. When the sugar is dissolved by the hot juice, pour the whole into wide-mouthed glass bottles. Cover the tops closely, and store in a cool place. Plums preserved in this way win keep for a short time only. Time, about an hour.