Culinary Chemistry / The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive Qualities of Different Kinds of Food.

by Friedrich Christian Accum

CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS, BY MEANS OF SUGAR, IN A LIQUID STATE.

A great number of fruits in their natural state may be conserved in a fluid, transparent syrup, of such a consistence as will prevent them from spoiling. This method of conserving fruits requires some care; for if they are too little impregnated with sugar, they do not keep, and if the syrup is too concentrated, the sugar crystallizes, and thus spoils the conserved fruit.

METHOD OF CONSERVING APRICOTS BY MEANS OF SUGAR.

Plums
Damsons
Green Gages

Peaches
Nectarines.

Take apricots, not too ripe, cut a small slit near the stem end of the fruit, and push out the stone; simmer them in water till nearly half done, then peel them, and simmer them again for about twenty minutes in a syrup, made of two parts by measure of water, and one part by weight of loaf sugar. When this has been done, put them aside for about twelve hours; strain off the syrup, and to one pint of it add four ounces of lump sugar, simmer the fruit again for about ten minutes in this concentrated syrup; skim off the impurities that rise to the surface, and repeat the simmering of the fruit in the syrup three or four times; and, lastly, put the apricots into pots, and cover them with a syrup made of seven ounces, by measure, of water, and one pound of loaf sugar. Tie over or cork the jar to exclude the air.