Sweet Pickles

Prepare the fruit as directed below. Tie the spices in several cheese-cloth bags, and bring them to the boiling point in a cooker-pail, with the sugar and vinegar. Add the fruit, let it barely come to a boil, stirring it carefully, so that it will not break to pieces. Set it in a cooker for the time directed below for each particular kind of fruit. When it is sufficiently cooked, remove it from the syrup and put it into cans or crocks. Boil the syrup until it loses its thin, watery consistency, and pour it over the fruit. If this occupies more than one receptacle, put one spice bag in each. Cover or seal the cans while still hot. Sweet pickles should not be eaten until they have stood for several weeks.

Peaches:

Select firm, ripe peaches, rub them well with a woolen cloth, but do not pare them. Cook them whole, as directed [above], for from one to two hours or more, depending upon the hardness and size of the peaches.

Pears:

Wash, pare and, if desired, cut the pears in half, removing the cores. Cook them, as directed [above], for from one to two hours or more, depending upon the hardness and size of the pears.

Crab Apples:

Wash and dry the apples and cut out the blossom. Drop them into the syrup as soon as the sugar is dissolved. Let them boil and cook them, as directed [above], for from two to three hours.

Watermelon Rind or Citron:

Pare the rind and cut it into pieces. Put it into a cooker-pail of boiling salt and water, mixed in the proportion of one-half cup of salt to one gallon of water. Slip the pail at once into a cooker for ten hours or over night. When the rind is soft drain it and wash it in cold water. Drain it in a colander and add it to the syrup, prepared as directed [above], and cook it, as other sweet pickles, for from four to six hours. The fruit shrinks to about one-half its bulk after cooking in the brine.

Prunes:

Soak the prunes for five minutes, wash them well, then soak them for six hours in enough water to cover them. Remove the pits, crack them, and chop the kernels. Cook the prunes and kernels in spiced syrup as directed [above] for ten hours or over night. Weigh the fruit after it has been soaked in order to estimate the amount of syrup needed.

Plums:

Wipe the fruit, prick it and put it into the syrup, bring it slowly to a boil and cook it as directed [above], for from one to two hours. If each plum is pricked once with a sharp-pointed fork or nut-pick it will not burst.

Quinces:

Wash the fruit and wipe it. Peel, quarter, and core it and bring it to a boil in enough water to half cover it; cook it in a cooker for ten hours or over night or steam it in a wire rack over boiling water for ten minutes and place it in a cooker for three hours; put it over the fire and bring it again to a hard boil and replace it in the cooker for another three hours. The quinces, unless very hard, will then be ready to cook in the syrup as directed [above], for ten hours or over night. If they are first cooked in water instead of by steaming, the water may be used for making a syrup to use as a pudding sauce or for other purposes.