The Pocumtuc Housewife, a Guide to Domestic Cookery as it is Practised in ...

A pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the rule for all preserves. The sugar should be melted over a moderate fire, skimmed clean and the fruit dropped in to simmer until it is soft. Put them in jars, lay a white paper thoroughly wet with brandy flat on the surface of the preserves, and cover tight from the air. Raspberry Jam. Six potmds of sugar to ten pounds of berries. Crush the berries and set them over the stove where they will heat slowly. Press through a strainer. Return the juice to the fire and boil briskly fifteen minutes; add the sugar and cook half an hour longer. Put in the fruit and simmer for ten minutes. Citron Melon Preserves. Pare and cut the melon in small pieces. Boil gently until tender in just water enough to cover. Skim out and add as much sugar as there was melon. Boil an hour, add the melon and one lemon sliced to each pound of melon. Simmer until clear, then take out the melon and lemon and boil the syrup half an hour longer. Pour hot over the melon. Quince and Apple Preserve. Five pounds quinces pared and quartered, five pounds sweet apples, five pounds sugar. Boil the quince parings and cores in sufficient water to cover. Strain, put in the quince and cook until tender. Take them out and add sugar to water.Let it boil up, then put in quince and apple in alternate layers and cook until apple is tender and red like the quince. Add more water if necessary. Cider Apple Sauce. A barrel of cider apple sauce and a half barrel of qtiince and apple will be needed in an ordinary family. Boil down a barrel of sweet cider as soon as it comes from the press, either in the set kettle or in brass kettles, to ten or twelve gallons. Take a rainy day when the boys are idle to pare the apples. Fill a brass kettle two-thirds full with half sweet and half sour quartered apples. Put in two or three quarts of cider syrup and boil until apples are tender. Set the barrel of sauce where it will freeze and it will grow better until spring. It needs time to mature. Sweet apples alone put in a few at a time and skimmed out before they mush are very nice. The quinces must be sliced very thin and cooked a little before the apple is mixed in. Save some of the syrup and in the spring make sauce with dried sweet apples first soaked in water. Syrup for all sorts of Sweet Pickles. To eight pounds fruit use one quart vinegar, four pounds sugar, one ounce cinnamon stick, one half ounce cloves. Boil together. Put in fruit and skim out when tender. Boil down syrup and pour over fruit. 38 I Preserved Orange Peel. Sprinkle the peel well with salt and cover with cold water for three or four days. Pour off the brine and put into fresh water to boil until soft; then put into a thick syrup of sugar and water and boil until it is clear. Put it away in jars with the syrup and use it in cakes and puddings as you would citron. Mangoes. Take green muskmelons, remove the seeds and put them in salt and water over night. Fill them with onions, horseradish chopped fine, mustard seed and cloves, sew them up and pour over hot vinegar. Pickled Cabbage. Pack red cabbages, the large heads cut in quarters, into a brass kettle. Pour weak vinegar and salt over them. Scald until the cabbage is tender. Drain and stick cloves into every piece so as to pin down the leaves. Pack the cabbages in a keg or jar and pour boiling strong vinegar over them. Tomato Soy. One peck green tomatoes, six peppers, four onions chopped; add one cup salt and let stand over night. Then drain off the liquid and add a large cup of sugar, a cup of grated horseradish, a tablespoonful each of allspice, cloves and cassia ; cover with good vinegar and cook till soft, also add a little ground mustard. Ripe Tomato Pickle.