Pour boiling water on the prunes, and set them where they will keep hot, with a lemon, cut in small pieces. When swelled out to nearly the original size, put to each pound of the prunes half a pound of brown sugar, a stick of cinnamon, or a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves, and if there is not sufficient water remaining to cover the prunes, add more, and stew them in the syrup a quarter of an hour. Add, when taken from the fire, a wine glass of wine to every three pounds of the prunes.
For each peck of cranberries allow two pounds and a half of brown sugar, and half a pint of molasses. Make a syrup of the molasses, sugar, and a little water. When it boils, put in the cranberries, and let them boil till transparent. To make cranberry marmalade, boil the cranberries in just water enough to prevent their burning. Strain them when soft, and add to each pound a pound and a half of brown sugar. Stew it over a slow fire, stirring it constantly, till it becomes very thick jelly.
Make a syrup, allowing the same weight of sugar as apples. Let it get cool, then put in the apples, a few at once, so that they will not crowd, and break to pieces. Boil them till they begin to break, then take them out of the preserving kettle carefully. Boil the syrup in the course of three or four days, and turn it while hot on to the apples. This continue to do at intervals of two or three days, till the apples appear to be thoroughly preserved. If you wish to make a marmalade of the apples, boil them in just water enough to keep them from burning—strain them when soft, and put to them an equal weight of brown sugar—stew them over a slow fire, stirring them constantly. When of a thick consistency, take a little of it out, and set it where it will get cold. If it then cuts smooth and clear, take the whole from the fire, and turn it into deep dishes.
Take them when fully ripe, let them remain on the stems. Make a rich syrup, allowing the same weight of sugar as barberries. When clarified, set it where it will get lukewarm, then put in the barberries. Boil them till the syrup appears to have entered them. Barberries preserved with molasses, and a little orange peel and sugar, are very good for common use. Allow for each pound of barberries a quarter of a pound of sugar, half a pint of molasses, and the rind of half an orange. Make them into a syrup with a little water—boil it a quarter of an hour before putting in the barberries. Preserved barberries, mixed with cold water, make a very refreshing drink in fevers.