Greengages, stoned and skinned, 6 lbs.: 50 minutes. Sugar, 4-1/2 lbs.: 5 to 8 minutes.
PRESERVE OF THE MAGNUM BONUM, OR MOGUL PLUM.
Prepare, weigh, and boil the plums for forty minutes; stir to them half their weight of good sugar beaten fine, and when it is dissolved continue the boiling for ten additional minutes, and skim the preserve carefully during the time. This is an excellent marmalade, but it may be rendered richer by increasing the proportion of sugar. The blanched kernels of a portion of the fruit stones will much improve its flavour, but they should be mixed with it only two or three minutes before it is taken from the fire. When the plums are not entirely ripe, it is difficult to free them from the stones and skins: they should then be boiled down and pressed through a sieve, as directed for greengages, in the receipt above.
Mogul plums, skinned and stoned, 6 lbs.: 40 minutes. Sugar, 3 lbs.: 5 to 8 minutes.
TO DRY OR PRESERVE MOGUL PLUMS IN SYRUP.
Pare the plums, but do not remove the stalks or stones; take their weight of dry sifted sugar, lay them into a deep dish or bowl, and strew it over them; let them remain thus for a night, then pour them gently into a preserving-pan with all the sugar, heat them slowly, and let them just simmer for five minutes; in two days repeat the process, and do so again and again at an interval of two or three days, until the fruit is tender and very clear; put it then into jars, and keep it in the syrup, or drain and dry the plums very gradually, as directed for other fruit. When they are not sufficiently ripe for the skin to part from them readily, they must be covered with spring water, placed over a slow fire, and just scalded until it can be stripped from them easily. They may also be entirely prepared by the receipt for dried apricots which follows, a page or two from this.
MUSSEL PLUM CHEESE AND JELLY.
Fill large stone jars with the fruit, which should be ripe, dry, and sound; set them into an oven from which the bread has been drawn several hours, and let them remain all night; or, if this cannot conveniently be done, place them in pans of water, and boil them gently until the plums are tender, and have yielded their juice to the utmost. Pour this from them, strain it through a jelly bag, weigh, and then boil it rapidly for twenty-five minutes. Have ready, broken small, three pounds of sugar for four of the juice, stir them together until it is dissolved, and then continue the boiling quickly for ten minutes longer, and be careful to remove all the scum. Pour the preserve into small moulds or pans, and turn it out when it is wanted for table: it will be very fine, both in colour and in flavour.
Juice of plums, 4 lbs.: 25 minutes. Sugar, 3 lbs.: 10 minutes.
The cheese.—Skin and stone the plums from which the juice has been poured, and after having weighed, boil them an hour and a quarter over a brisk fire, and stir them constantly; then to three pounds of fruit add one of sugar, beaten to powder; boil the preserve for another half hour, and press it into shallow pans or moulds.