Put up jellies and small sweetmeats in common tumblers, laying on the surface of each a double cover of white tissue paper cut exactly to fit, and then put on another cover of thick white paper pleated and notched where it descends below the edge, using always gum tragacanth paste, which you should keep always in the house, as it requires no boiling; and if in making it, a bit of corrosive sublimate (not larger than a cherry-stone) is dissolved with the ounce of gum tragacanth and the half pint of warm water, in a yellow or white-ware mug, and stirred only with a stick, the paste will never spoil, and if kept covered, will be found superior to all others. No metal must touch this cement, as it will then turn black and spoil.
Keep your sweetmeats always in a dry place. But if after a while you see a coat of mould on the surface, you need not throw them away, till you have tried to recover them by carefully removing every particle of mould, filling up the jars with fresh sugar, and setting them, one by one, in a bottle of water, and in this way boiling them over again. But if they have an unpleasant smell, and you see insects about them, of course they must be thrown away. To purify jars, clean and scrape them, and wash them thoroughly with ley and water, or with a solution of soda—afterwards exposing them to the sun and air for a week or more.
Jellies.—We have already given directions for various fruit jellies in the chapter on Fine Desserts. They are all made nearly in the same manner, using the juice of the fruit, and sufficient sugar to make it congeal and to keep it. Jellies should always be bright and transparent, and therefore require the best and ripest of fruit and the finest of loaf sugar.
MARMALADE OR JAMS.—
Marmalade or jams are the easiest sweetmeats to make, and are useful for all sweetmeat purposes. They are all made nearly in the same manner; and to be very good, and to keep well, at least a pound of fine sugar should be allowed to every pound of fruit—the fruit being quite ripe, freshly gathered, and of the best kind.
For Peach Marmalade—Take fine, juicy free-stone peaches. Pare them; cut them in half; remove the stones, and let them be saved and the kernels extracted to use as bitter almonds. Cut up the peaches, and allow for each pound a pound of sugar. Lay the peaches (with all the sugar among them,) in a large pan or tureen, and let them rest for three or four hours. Boil the peaches and sugar together in a porcelain kettle (without a cover) for half an hour, skimming and stirring well. When it becomes a thick smooth mass it is finished. Put it up in glass jars, and leave it uncovered till cool; but not longer. The flavor will be much improved by boiling with the peaches and sugar one or two handfuls of the kernels, blanched and pounded; or else a bunch of fresh peach leaves, to be removed afterward.
Quince Marmalade is made in the same manner—first carefully removing all the blemishes. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of quinces. They must boil longer than peaches. All marmalades must be cooked till the form of the fruit is quite indistinguishable, and till it mashes into a thick smooth mass. Quinces should be allowed to remain on the trees till after the first frost, which greatly improves them. Persimmons and wild grapes are not eatable till they are touched by the frost.
Tomato Marmalade.—Make this when lemons are ripe and plenty. To every two pounds of tomatos allow two pounds of sugar, and the grated yellow rind and the juice of one lemon. The worst way of using lemons for any purpose is to merely slice them. Depend on the slices for flavoring, and they are wasted; the taste being scarcely perceptible. They should always be first rolled under your hand, which increases the yield of juice. Then grate off from the outside the yellow rind only (the white part of the rind is worse than useless,) and having cut the lemon, squeeze the juice through a tin strainer to exclude the seeds, which otherwise would be troublesome to pick out. The yellow rind and the juice are all you need want of a lemon for any purpose of flavoring. Scald the tomatos to make them peel easily, and mix the sugar thoroughly with them. Boil them slowly for an hour in a porcelain kettle, skimming carefully, and stirring well after each skimming. Then add the lemon grate and the juice, and boil the marmalade another half hour, or till it is a thick smooth mass.
Pumpkin Marmalade.—Take a fine ripe high-colored pumpkin. Cut it up. Empty it very clean of the seeds and strings; take off a thick paring. Slice the pieces small and thin, and weigh them. To each pound of pumpkin allow a pound of powdered sugar, and the grated peel and the juice of one large lemon. Pumpkin sweetmeats require a high lemon flavoring. Boil the pumpkin alone, till quite soft. Then mash it in a cullender till the water is pressed out, and the pumpkin left dry. Afterwards put it into a porcelain kettle, mix with it the sugar and lemon, and boil it again till it becomes a thick jam. Cantaloupe marmalade is made in the same way with lemon and sugar—also marmalade of ripe figs.