Plums

Ingredients

• Plums should be quite freshly gathered for bottling

Method

1. 1

   Choose only those of a fairly good size and pack them properly in the bottles.

2. 2

   The fruit must be graded, and plums chosen as near of a size as possible.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cookery for every household (1914) by Florence B. Jack, page 766. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

plums, require 25 minutes, pears 1 hour, apricots 45 minutes, peaches 45 minutes, tomatoes 30 minutes, rhubarb 20 minutes. 2169. Syrup for Bottled Fruits Sometimes it is desirable to bottle the fruit in syrup instead of water only. The following is a good recipe : To every quart of water allow | lb. of the best cane sugar. Bring to the boil and continue to boil at 212° for \ hour, taking care to skim when necessary. Pour the syrup into a vessel, and keep till quite cold before pouring over the fruits. 2170. Cherries The Kentish cherry is excellent for preserving in this way. Pick the cherries off their stalks, and pack in the bottles. The fruit should be firm but nearly ripe. When packing, shake the bottle gently up and down, so that the fruit may fit in closely. If the fruit is pricked at one end with a needle it prevents bursting. Fill up the bottles with syrup or water. Proceed as indicated in the foregoing recipe, and sterilise at 150°. Another method is to split the cherries in half with a sharp knife, take out the stones, crack some, and return the kernels. 476 COOKERY FOR EVERY HOUSEHOLD to the bottles when packing. This latter method keeps the fruit a beautiful colour, but it would be well to use syrup instead of water, because, pre- served in this way, they are richer in flavour and appearance. 2171. Raspberries and Red Currants Raspberries and currants together make one of the very best fruits for winter use. They are always liked, and as they keep their colour well when bottled they look appetising. Discrimina- tion should be used in the weather for bottling, and a specially dry day should be chosen for doing soft fruits, for if saturated with rain they lose their flavour, and do not keep as well as when picked on a warm dry day. The currants should be carefully picked off their stalks, and also the raspberries. Place a layer of raspberries about 1 inch thick first in the bottle, and shake gently down ; then place a layer of red currants. Proceed in this manner till the bottles are filled to within an inch of the top. Fill up and proceed as in the foregoing recipes. Sterilise at 155°. 2172. Strawberries Of all the soft fruits strawberries are the only ones that are really difficult. To the uninitiated strawberries are always a disappointment. When the bottles are taken out of the steriliser they pre- sent the appearance of a quarter of a bottle of strawberries floating on the top of a sea of juice. The only way to overcome this is to empty the contents of one bottle into another after sterilising. When one bottle is full, fill with syrup and sterilise again. This fruit loses its colour very much during the process, takes a lot of trouble to do, and is rather insipid when done. 2173. Plums Plums should be quite freshly gathered for bottling

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.