Household hints

Peaches. — If possible, pare and cut up your peaches the afternoon before they are to be canned, and scatter sugar over them. In the morning there will be sirup enough to cook them in. Put this sirup into your porcelain kettle, if you have one — ^if not, into a bright tin pan ; cook a few peaches at a time, try them with a broom-splint ; just before they are done, add the necessary quantity of sugar. Some housekeepers make a practice of putting one whole peach into each can, to give the almond flavor of the stone to the whole can. You can not, of course, guess at just the number of halves or quarters needed to fill the can ; if you have too many pieces, and are afraid of their cooking too much, take them out carefully on a plate, and, after cooking others for the next canful, add to them. By cooking a few at once you can preserve the shape and have much finer results than if you cook a great many at a time. Quinces. — Pare and core and quarter the fruit. Save all the nice skins and the seeds (with the cores, being very particular to reject any which are at all decayed) for jelly. Then steam the quinces till a broom-splint will pierce easily ; then make a sirup of sugar and water, put the quinces in, and, when just coming to a boil, can them. Quinces and Sweet Apples. — Prepare the quinces and apples as for canning. Steam them in the same way, having about one third as many quinces as apples. Make a very sweet sirup, as they will keep better with plenty of sugar. These may be canned or kept in a large stone jar. Baked Quinces.— ^TdikQ out the cores and fill the places FRUIT, 67 with sugar ; leave the skin on ; pour a little water over them, and bake in an earthen pie-plate. If baked in a tin, and left in it even for a very short time, they become discolored and are likely to taste of the tin. Bear this in mind when baking apples also. . Serve cream with the baked quinces, and they are delicious. Currants. — Cook well with very little water, sweeten to taste, and can ; or, to make old-fashioned preserves, use a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Spiced Currants. — If currants are not plenty, and you dislike to use them for jelly, an excellent substitute is made in this way : Take five pounds of fruit, four of brown sugar, a little less than two table-spoonfuls of cloves, the same quantity of cinnamon ; boil two hours ; then add one pint of vinegar, and boil fifteen minutes. It is much cheaper and less trouble to make this than to make jelly. Grapes Spiced. — Five pounds of grapes, five pounds of brown sugar, three quarters of a cupful of vinegar, two ounces of ginger-root, three teaspoonfuls each of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Take the pulps out of the skins, put in a pan by themselves, and boil until the seeds separate from the pulp ; then drain through a colander. Rinse the pulp also, to make sure that there are no seeds left, put back on the stove, add skins, etc., and boil an hour and a half ; then seal in bottles or cans. Grapes may be prepared in the same way, omitting spices and vinegar, for making pies in winter. Plums. — Plums gain more than almost any other fruit by being put up with plenty of sugar ; even if you are to can them, and know that they will keep perfectly with much less, it is a good rule to put half a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Some cooks remove the skins, but I think it a great loss to do this. Cook the skin properly, and the objection to it is done away with. Pears. — Peel them, cut in halves, or, if large, in quar- ters ; make a rich sirup with white sugar, cook till tender, either by steaming them or boiling in a very little water, as you would peaches.