Free the rhubarb from leaves, cut it up in inch lengths, wash and drain it in a sieve or colander. Next, put the rhubarb into a sufficiently large pot, or preserving-pan, with a little water—say a pint of water to ten pounds of rhubarb, and put this on the fire, with the lid on, to boil until dissolved to a pulp, stirring it occasionally; as soon as all the rhubarb is dissolved, add six pounds of moist sugar, and stir the whole continuously on the fire while boiling fast, until reduced to a rather stiff paste or marmalade—this will require about half an hour's boiling; the preserve or jam must then be immediately put into jars, or gallipots, and, when cold, is to be covered with stiff paper, and tied round with string. Keep the jam in a cold place, for use.
[No. 109. How to make Gooseberry Jam.]
Pick ten pounds of ripe gooseberries, put them in a covered pot, with a pint of water, and set them on the fire to boil to a pulp, stirring them frequently, and, when they are thoroughly dissolved, add six pounds of sugar, and stir the whole continuously while boiling on the fire, until the jam is reduced to a rather stiff paste; it must then be poured into gallipots, and, when cold, is to be covered with paper, and tied round with string.
[No. 110. Baked Pears.]
Put the pears, standing up side by side in rows, with their stalks uppermost, in an earthenware baking dish; add a sprinkle of moist sugar, a few cloves, and a pint of cider or water, and bake them until they are done. The time for cooking them depends upon their size and kind.
[No. 111. Baked Apples.]
Put the apples on a baking-dish, with a sprinkle of sugar, and a drop of cider or water, and set them in the oven to bake. Baked apples or pears, with bread, form a cheap, wholesome, and proper kind of supper for children.
[No. 112. To make Elder Wine.]
Ingredients, two gallons of elderberries, two quarts of damsons, eight pounds of raw sugar, at 4 1/2d. per pound, two gallons of water, two ounces of ginger, one ounce of cloves, and half a pint of fresh yeast. To make this quantity of elder wine, you must have a copper, a tub, a large canvas or loose flannel bag, and a five-gallon barrel. First, crush the elderberries and damsons thoroughly in the pot or copper in which they are to be boiled; then add the water, and keep stirring all together as it boils, until the fruit is well dissolved; then use a wooden bowl or a basin to pour the whole into a loose flannel bag, steadily fixed across two stout sticks, resting safely on two chairs, or, if you have one, a large coarse sieve instead. When all the liquor has passed through into the tub, put the dregs back into the copper, to be boiled up with a couple of quarts of water, and then to be strained to the other liquor. The next part of the process is to put the whole of the elderberry juice back into the clean pot or copper, with the sugar, and the spice, well bruised with a hammer; stir all together, on the fire, and allow the wine to boil gently for half an hour, then pour it into the clean tub to cool; the half-pint of yeast must then be added, and thoroughly mixed by stirring. At the end of two days, skim off the yeast which, by that time, will have risen to the surface. The elder wine must now be put into the barrel, and kept in the cellar with the bung-hole left open for a fortnight; at the end of this time, a stiff brown paper should be pasted over the bung-hole, and after standing for a month or six weeks, the wine will be ready for use. To be obliged to buy all the ingredients for making elder wine, would render it a matter of great difficulty—perhaps, in some cases, an impossibility; but, remember, that when living in the country, where in some parts elderberries grow in the hedge-rows, you may have them for the trouble of gathering them, in which case the elder wine would be cheaper, and more easily within your means.