Preserved Apricots for Tarts or Desserts.
Cut ripe apricots in halves, blanch the kernels and add them to the fruit. Have ready clarified sugar boiling hot, put the apricots into it, and let them stand till cold. Then boil the syrup again, add the apricots as before, and when they are cold put the halves into small pots or glasses, and if the syrup is too thin boil it again, and when it is cold put it to the fruit, and cover it with paper dipped in brandy.
N. B. Green gages may be done whole in the same manner, or green gooseberries with the seeds taken out. These fruits may be served up with the syrup; or they may be dried on tin plates, in a moderately heated oven, and when almost cold put sifted sugar over.
Currant Jelly.
Take two thirds of ripe red currants and one third of white, pick them, put them into a preserving pan over a good fire, and when they are dissolved run their liquor through a flannel bag. To a pint of juice add fourteen ounces of sifted sugar. Set it over a brisk fire, let it boil quick, skim it clean, and reduce it to a good stiffness, which may be known as before directed in orange marmalade.
N. B. In the same manner may be made black currant jelly, but allowing sixteen ounces of sugar to a pint of juice.
Crisp Tart Paste.
Take half a pound of sifted flour, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, two ounces of sifted sugar, and two eggs beaten; mix them with pump water, and knead the paste well.
Eggs and Bacon another way.
Boil six eggs for five minutes, then peel and cut them into halves; after which take out the yolks, put them into a marble mortar with a small quantity of the white meat of dressed fowl, lean ham, a little chopped parsley, one eschallot, a table spoonful of cream, a dessert spoonful of ketchup, a little cayenne, some breadcrumbs, and sifted mace, a very small quantity of each. Pound all well together, fill the halves of the whites with the mixture, bake them gently ten minutes, and serve them up on rashers of bacon or ham broiled, and put some cullis over them.