BARBERRIES IN SPRIGS AND BUNCHES.
Pick out the finest bunches and sprigs of fine ripe clear berries—reject all faulty ones—lay them in as much water as will be requisite for making their syrup, and boil them until they are tender. Now strain them upon a sieve, and to every pint of their juice add a pound and half of best refined sugar, boil and skim this thoroughly, and to each pint of the syrup put half a pound of the fruit in bunches and boil them very gently until they become quite bright and clear. When cold put them into clear glasses and pour the syrup to them. Use brandy paper, and paste writing paper over the glasses.
HAMBURGH GRAPES PRESERVED WHOLE.
Pick out some handsome little bunches, wipe them very carefully with soft old linen moistened with spirits and water, place them in a wide jar, and allow one ounce of white sugar-candy beaten small to each pound of the grapes, which, as the fruit is placed, must be scattered equally amongst it. Fill the jar up with French brandy, the best, and seeing in two days afterwards that the fruit is properly covered, make up safely with bladder and leather, and store away in a cool airy room.
GOLDEN PIPPINS
Pare two dozen fine pippins nicely, cut them into quarters and take out the cores. Boil the rinds of two fine large oranges in a pan of cold water until perfectly tender and lay them in pure spring water for three days. Put these into a pan, just cover them with water and let them boil twenty minutes, and strain the juice through a jelly-bag; then pare two dozen more pippins, take out the cores at the stalk ends neatly. Make now a fine clear syrup of two pounds of the best refined sugar and one pint of water, to which add the apple juice, and when it is cold put in the pippins, adding the orange peel cut into thin chips. Boil it very gently ten minutes, then take out the pippins, and when cool put them into jars and pour the syrup over them. Apply brandy paper, and tie bladder over the jars, and leather over that. Some adopt the mutton suet melted, with one-eighth of its weight of sweet lard added, which corrects the brittleness of the suet and causes it to adhere better to the sides of the jars.
RASPBERRY MARMALADE.
Pick fresh ripe raspberries from the stalks and simmer them gently about ten minutes, keeping them stirred all the time. Pour them and their juice into a clean hair sieve and rub them through it with a wooden spoon, leaving only the seeds behind. Weigh the fruit and boil it quickly for eight or ten minutes, then take the pan from the fire and stir gradually into it three quarters of a pound of sugar to the pound of pulp. When this is quite dissolved continue the boiling for another ten minutes—less time will occasionally be sufficient, but the thickness of the preserve and the manner in which it jellies on the skimmer will show when it is boiled enough. The raspberries may be rubbed through a sieve without the previous simmering, then mixed with their weight of sugar and boiled quickly for twenty minutes. Rich strawberry jam or marmalade is made in precisely the same manner.
JAM OF MORELLO CHERRIES.
This is a delicious preserve when made with fine ripe morellos. Stone the fruit, weigh it, heat it rather slowly to draw out the juice, then boil it quickly for twenty minutes over a very clear fire, add thirteen ounces of sugar for each pound of the cherries, and boil the jam from fifteen to twenty minutes longer, being careful to clear off all the scum. The sugar should be of good quality; it must be beaten to powder and added gradually to the fruit, and stirred with it off the fire until it is dissolved. A larger portion may be used when the morellos are very acid. An equal weight with the cherries will not be too much for some tastes, but their flavour will be better preserved with less. A few of the kernels blanched and wiped quite dry may be added a couple of minutes before the jam is poured out.