Strawberries for preserving should be large and ripe. They will keep best if gathered in dry weather, when there has been no rain for at least two days. Having hulled, or topped and tailed them all, select the largest and firmest, and spread them out separately on flat dishes; having first weighed them, and allowed to each pound of strawberries a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Sift half the sugar over them. Then take the inferior strawberries that were left, and those that, are over ripe; mix with them an equal quantity of powdered sugar, and mash them. Put them into a basin covered with a plate, and set them over the fire in a pan of boiling water, till they become a thick juice; then strain it through a bag and mix with it the other half of the sugar that you have allotted to the strawberries, which are to be done whole. Put it into a porcelain kettle, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise; then put in the whole strawberries with the sugar in which they have been lying, and all the juice that may have exuded from them. Set them over the fire in the syrup, just long enough to heat them a little; and in a few minutes take them out, one by one, with a tea-spoon, and spread them on dishes to cool; not allowing them to touch each other. Then take off what scum may arise from the additional sugar. Repeat this several times, taking out the strawberries and cooling them till they become quite clear. They must not be allowed to boil; and if they seem likely to break, they should be instantly and finally taken from the fire. When quite cold, put them with the syrup into tumblers, or into white queen’s-ware pots. If intended to keep a long time it will be well to put at the top a layer of apple jelly.
Take large ripe morella cherries; weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Stone the cherries, (opening them with a sharp quill,) and save the juice that comes from them in the process. As you stone them, throw them into a large pan or tureen, and strew about half the sugar over them, and let them lie in it an hour or two after they are all stoned. Then put them into a preserving kettle with the remainder of the sugar, and boil and skim them till the fruit is clear and the syrup thick.
The large carnation cherries are the best for this purpose. They should be quite ripe. Prick every one in several places with a needle, and leave on the stalks cut short. To each pound of cherries allow a pound and a quarter of the best loaf-sugar. Spread them on large dishes, and strew over them a thick layer of the sugar powdered fine; about a quarter of a pound of sugar to each pound of cherries. Or you may put them into a large tureen, and disperse the sugar among them, cover them, and let them set all night. In the morning get some ripe red currants; pick them, from the stalks, and squeeze them through a linen cloth till you have just sufficient juice to moisten the remaining sugar, which you must have ready in a preserving kettle. When the sugar has melted in the currant juice, put it over the fire, and when it has been well boiled and skimmed, put in the cherries and simmer them half an hour, or till they are so clear that you can see the stones through them. Then take them up one at a time, and spread them out to cool. Taste one, and if the sugar does not seem, to have sufficiently penetrated it, return them to the syrup and boil them a little longer, but do not allow them to break. If you are willing to take the trouble, you may put them out to cool three or four times while simmering. This will make them more transparent, and prevent them from bursting.
Take fine juicy red cherries, and stone them. Save half the stones, crack them, and extract the kernels. Put the cherries and the kernels into a preserving kettle over a slow fire, and let them boil gently in their juice for half an hour. Then transfer them to a jelly-bag, and squeeze out the juice. Measure it, and to each pint allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the juice, and then boil and skim it for twenty or thirty minutes. Put it up in tumblers covered with tissue paper.
To each pound of cherries allow three quarters of a pound of the best brown sugar. Stone them, and as you do so throw the sugar gradually into the pan with them. Cover them and let them set all night. Next day, boil them slowly till the cherries and sugar form a thick smooth mass. Put it up in queen’s-ware jars.