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Classic
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page 213
PRESERVES.
Preserves, to be perfect, must be made with the greatest care. Economy of time
and trouble is a waste of fruit and sugar. The best are made by putting only a
small amount of fruit at a time in the syrup, after the latter has been
carefully prepared and clarified, and the fruit neatly pared. It is difficult to
watch a large quantity so as to insure its being done to a turn.
The old rule is "a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit," but since the
introduction of cans, three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is
sufficient, and even less is sometimes used, the necessity for an excess of
sugar having passed away, as preserves may be less sweet, with no risk of
fermentation, if sealed. Either tin or glass cans may be used, care being taken
to make the sealing perfect.
Quinces, pears, citrons, watermelon-rinds, and many of the smaller fruits, such
as cherries, currants, etc., harden when put, at first, into a syrup made of
their weight ofsugar. To prevent this they should be cooked till tender in
water, or in a weak syrup made from a portion only of the sugar, adding the
remainder afterward. In preserving fruits, such as peaches, tomatoes, plums, and
strawberries, which are likely to become too soft in cooking, it is a good plan
to pour the hot syrup over the fruit and let it remain over night,
or to strew over it a part or all the sugar and allow it to stand a few hours;
by either method the juice is extracted, and the fruit hardened.
Another approved method of hardening fruit is to skim it out of syrup, after
cooking a few minutes and lay it in the hot sun two or three hours, and then
pour over it the boiling syrup.
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