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TO CLARIFY SUGAR.
Take the proportion of one pound of sugar to half a pint of water, with the whites of a couple of eggs; boil it up twice, then set it by for the impurities to rise to the top, and skim it carefully.
CHAPTER VIII.
Preserving and Bottling.
Attention and a little practice will ensure excellence in such preserves as are in general use in private families; and it will always be found a more economical plan to purchase the more rare and uncommon articles of preserved fruits than to have them made at home.
The more sugar that is added to fruit the less boiling it requires.
If jellies be over-boiled, much of the sugar will become candied, and leave the jelly thin.
Every thing used for the purpose of preserving should be clean and very dry, particularly bottles for bottled fruit.
Fruit should boil rapidly before the sugar is added, and quietly afterwards—when preserves seem likely to become mouldy, it is generally a sign they have not been sufficiently boiled, and it will be requisite to boil them up again—fruit for bottling should not be too ripe, and should be perfectly fresh; there are various methods adopted by different cooks: the fruit may be placed in the bottles, and set in a moderate oven until considerably shrunken, when the bottles should be removed and closely corked; or the bottles may be set in a pan with cold water up to the necks, placed over the fire; when the fruit begins to sink remove them, and when cold fill up each bottle with cold spring water, cork the bottles, and lay them on their sides in a dry place.