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Classic
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page 382
pour it boiling over the pumpkin. A little bruised ginger, and lemon-rind,
thinly pared, may be boiled in the syrup to flavor the pumpkin.
-A Southern recipe.
PRESERVING FRUIT. (New Mode.)
Housekeepers who dislike the tedious, old-time fashion of clarifying sugar and
boiling the fruit, will appreciate the following two recipes, no fire being
needed in their preparation. The first is for "tutti frutti," and has been
repeatedly tested with unvarying success.
Put one quart of white, preserving, fine Batavia brandy into a two-gallon stone
jar that has a tightly fitting top. Then for every pound of fruit, in prime
condition and perfectly dry, which you put in the brandy, use three-quarters of
a pound of granulated sugar; stir every day so that the sugar will be dissolved,
using a clean, wooden spoon kept for the purpose. Every sort of fruit may be
used, beginning with strawberries and ending with plums. Be sure and have at
least one pound of black cherries, as they make the color of the preserve very
rich. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apricots, cherries (sweet and
sour), peaches, plums, are all used, and, if you like, currants and grapes.
Plums and grapes should be peeled and seeded, apricots and peaches peeled and
cut in quarters or eights or dice; cherries also must be seeded: quinces may be
steamed until tender. The jar must be kept in a cool, dry place, and the daily
stirring must never be forgotten, for that is the secret of success. You may use
as much of one sort of fruit as you like, and it may be put in from day to day,
just as you happen to have it. Half the quantity of spirits may be used. The
preserve will be ready for use within a week after the last fruit is put in, and
will keep for a number of months. We have found it good eight months after
making.
The second is as follows: Take some pure white vinegar and mix with it
granulated sugar until a syrup is formed quite free from acidity. Pour this
syrup into earthen jars and put in it good, perfectly ripe fruit, gathered in
dry weather. Cover the jars tight, and put them in a dry place. The contents
will keep for six or eight months, and the flavor of the fruit will be
excellent.
TO PRESERVE FRUIT WITHOUT SUGAR.
Cherries, strawberries, sliced pineapple, plums, apricots, gooseberries, etc.,
may be preserved in the following manner--to be used the same as fresh fruit.
Gather the fruit before it is very ripe; put it in wide-mouthed bottles made for
the purpose; fill them as full as they will hold, and cork them tight; seal the
corks; put some hay in a large sauce-pan, set in the bottles, with hay between
them to prevent their touching; then fill the sauce-pan with water to the necks
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