FINE PINE-APPLE MARMALADE.—Take the largest, ripest, and most perfect pine-apples. Pare them, and cut out whatever blemishes you may find. Weigh each pine-apple, balancing the other scale with an equal weight of the best double-refined sugar, finely powdered, at home. The white sugar, that is sold ready-powdered, is generally so adulterated with finely pulverized starch, as to have very little strength or sweetness, and is, therefore, unfit for sweetmeats, as, when made with it, they will not keep. Grate the pine-apples on a large dish; using a large, coarse grater, and omitting the hard core that goes down the centre of each. Put the grated pine-apple and the sugar into a preserving-kettle, mixing them thoroughly. Set it over a moderate and very clear fire, and boil and skim it well, stirring it after skimming. After the scum has ceased to appear, stir the marmalade frequently till it is done, which will generally be in an hour, or an hour and a half after it has come to a boil. But if it is not smooth, clear, and bright, in that time, continue the boiling till it is. Put it, warm, into tumblers, or broad-mouthed glass jars. Lay inside the top of each, doubled white tissue-paper, cut exactly to fit, and press it down lightly with your finger, round the edge, so as to cover smoothly the surface of the marmalade. Then paste strong white paper over the top of each glass, and set them in a cool, dry place.
This is a very delicious preparation of pine-apple.
THE BEST WAY OF PRESERVING PINE-APPLES.—Take six large, fine, ripe pine-apples. Make them very clean, but do not pare off the rind, or cut off the leaves. Put them, whole, into a very large and very clean pot or kettle. Fill it up with cold water, and boil the pine-apples till they are so tender that you can penetrate them all through with a twig from a broom. Then take them out and drain them. When cool enough to handle without inconvenience, remove the leaves, and pare off the rind. The rind and leaves being left on, while boiling, will keep in the flavour of the fruit. Cut the pine-apples into round slices, about half an inch thick, extracting the core from the centre, so as to leave a round hole in the middle of every slice. Weigh them; and to each pound allow a pound of double-refined loaf-sugar, broken up and powdered. Cover the bottom of a large dish, or dishes, with a layer of the sugar. On this, place a layer of pine-apple slices; then a layer of sugar; then one of pine-apple; and so till the pine-apple slices are all covered; finishing with a layer of sugar. Let them stand twenty-four hours. Then drain the slices from the syrup, and lay them in wide jars. Put the syrup into a clean preserving-kettle, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then pour it hot upon the pine-apple. While still warm, cover the jars closely, and paste paper over them. They will be found very fine.
QUINCES may be preserved in a similar manner; first boiling them whole, with the skin on; then peeling them, and extracting the cores; then slicing the quinces into round, thin pieces, and letting them stand twenty-four hours in layers of sugar. Boil the syrup, and pour it over the quinces, after they are in the jars.
Save the parings and cores, and also some of the water in which the quinces were boiled. Weigh the boiled cores and parings, and to each pound allow a half-pint of the quince-water. Set them over the fire, in a clean kettle, and boil them, till dissolved as much as possible. Then strain them through a linen bag. To each pint of juice allow a pound of loaf-sugar, powdered. Having washed the kettle, put in the sugar; pour on it the quince-liquor; and boil it till it becomes a jelly. Try it, by holding a spoonful in the open air, and, if all is right, it will congeal very soon.
FINE ORANGE MARMALADE.—Quarter some large, ripe oranges, and remove the rind, the seeds, and the strings, or filaments; taking care, as you do so, to save all the juice. Put the pulp and juice into a porcelain sauce-pan, and mix with it an equal quantity of strained honey. If not sweet enough, add some powdered loaf-sugar. Boil them together slowly, stirring it frequently. Try if it is done, by taking out a spoonful, and placing it in the cold air. If, in cooling, it becomes a very thick marmalade, it is sufficiently boiled. Put it into wide-mouth glass jars, and cover it closely; first, with a double white tissue-paper, cut exactly to fit the surface of the marmalade, and then with thick white paper, pasted down, carefully, over the top of the jar. A cover of bladder, soaked in water, and put on wet, that it may contract in drying, is still better.