Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Strawberries, Indian.— This plant is a native of the Himalaya mountains, and grows luxuriantly, and produces fruit in abundance in Britain, if only protected from severe frosts. The flowers of the Indian strawberry are yellow, not white, and the fruit is very beautiful, not hanging down as in the case of other strawberries, but growing with its apex upwards. It is not, however, of a very tempting quality. Strawberries, Preserved. —The fruit must be gathered in very dry weather, when there has been no rain for at least two days. The stalks must be left on. Place the strawberries upon a china dish without touching each other. Strew oyer them double their weight of sifted loaf sugar. Have ready also some very ripe strawberries with their stems picked off. Bruise these in a basin into a mash, and mix with them their weight in sifted sugar. Stand the basin well covered in a stewpan of boiling water. Place it over a slow fire, and there let it remain until the juice of the strawberries is drawn out and begins to thicken. Strain this juice through a muslin rag into a pan, pressing the pulp well ; boil and skim it, and let it cool. When cold, put the whole strawberries into this syrup, together with all the sugar strewed over them. Place them on a stove till they become a little warm ; take them off, and let them cool, then heat them again. Continue this several times until they are clear, warming them gradually, but taking care that they never approach a boil. If ever you perceive a tendency in any of them to break, remove them instantly from the fire, and do not replace them on it until they have become quite cold. When they are sufficiently clear, put them with great care into pots. There is another mode of preserving them whole, by placing them, when fresh-gathered, into glass pickle-bottles, strewing their weight of sifted sugar over as they are put in, and filling up the bottles with either boiling-hot malaga wine or boiling sweet malmsey. This is the most expensive, though the least troublesome ; but the other is preferable. Strawberries Preserved in Wine. • — Take the fruit when perfectly ripe and fresh; pick it, and pat it immediately into dry wide- STR ( 930 ) STEl mouthed bottles. Sprinkle amongst it four ounces of powdered sugar with each pound of fruit, and let the bottles be filled to the neck. Poirr in good sheriy or madeira to cover the fruit. Cork the bottles securely, wax them down, and store in a cool dry place. Strawberries, Preserved Whole.— Take perfectly sound ripe strawberries which have been gathered in dry weather ; pick and weigh them. Put them in layers on a large dish, and sprinkle finely-powdered sugar between the layers—a pound of sugar will be required for every pound of fruit. Let them stand all night. Next day put the whole gently into a clean preserving-pan. Let it boil ; shake the pan to keep the strawberries from burning, and pass a spoon round the edges ; but be careful not to crush the fruit. Remove the scum as it rises, and boil the fruit gently for a quarter of an hour. Drain the juice from the berries, and boil it separately for half an hour. If liked, a pint of red-currant juice boiled to syrup with half a pound of sugar may be added for each pound of strawberries, and this will greatly improve the flavour of the preparation.