FoodNetArchive

Virginia Cookery-book

1884

Page 115 · 4 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Yearly this fruit seems to be growing in popular esti- mation, so that we may hope to see it improved by culti- vation. The wormy, defective character of most in mar- ket calls for the utmost exercise of patience on the part of the house-keeper. Unlike almost every other fruit, the quince is unfit to preserve when freshly plucked, and must be laid by on shelves to mellow and become fra- grant. Wipe them off clean, and put them whole into a large kettle, where they must be parboiled in plenty of water and kept covered over. When sufficiently softened take the quinces out and set them where they will cool as fast as possible. Pare and core them nicely. Have some whole and some in slices. Put them back into a portion of the water in which they were parboiled and cook them until you can pass a straw through them with ease ; then put them on dishes to cool and acquire some firmness. Take as much of the water in which they were boiled as you think will be sufficient to cover them when the sugar is added, and make a sirup of one pound of sugar to one pound of fruit ; boil it, and when clarified put in as many of the quinces as can cook at once without being crowded and broken to pieces. Cover for a while with a large plate (it makes them light -colored) and let them VLBGINIA COOKMRT'BOOK. 343 boil slowly until they are clear. Every now and then take them out of the kettle and lay them singly on dishes to cool, while other pieces take their place in the kettle ; by-and-by put them back, to cook more, while the others cool, and so exchange until all are done equally and be- come of a beautiful red hue. By covering the kettle with a lid they remain yellow, but are really not nearly so pretty a preserve. Let the sirup boil a while after the quinces are taken out of it, and most likely it will jelly and look beautiful, filling the place of the cores in those that were left whole. Pbab Pbeserves. One pound of fruit, one pound of sugar ; pare off the peelings thin. Make a nine sirup of nearly one pint of water and one pound of sugar, and when clarified by boil- ing and skimming put in the pears and stew gently until clear. Choose rather pears like the Sickle for preserving, both on account of the flavor and size. A nice way is to stick a clove in the blossom end of each pear, for this fruit seems to require some extraneous flavor to bring out its own piquancy. Another acceptable addition to pear preserves may be found instead by adding the juice and thinly-pared rind of one lemon to each five pounds of the fruit. If pears are hard and tough parboil them till ten- der before beginning to preserve, and from the same water take what you need for making their sirup. If you can procure only large pears to preserve cut them into halves, or even slices, so that they can get done more quickly, and lose nothing in appearance either. Raspbbbry Pbbsbbves. The red Antwerp raspberry is deliciously fragrant, and makes a pretty preserve by strewing a pound of sugar 344 VIRQINIA COOKERY-BOOK. through a pound of berries, leaving them for two hours to draw juice, then putting them on in a preserving-pan over a brisk fire and letting them boil rapidly for just twenty minutes. Put them hot into half - pint glasses, cover first with brandy-papers, shut down the lid close, and they will keep nicely. For jam allow only half as much sugar as fruit. Cook the fruit half an hour alone, and half an hour after the two are combined, and there is no jam superior to it. Some put a third part of the fruit in red currants, and re- gard it as an improvement to raspberry jam. The Eng- lish, so-called, or Philadelphia purple raspberry, are also of very fine flavor when made into either jam or preserves by the above directions. Strawberry Preserves.Raspberry Preserves