HINTS ON PRESERVING
Preserving kettles should be broad and shallow, with a handle on each side. If you wish to preserve in small quantities, use a small kettle. A charcoal furnace is most desirable in warm weather, as you can put it where you like, and thus avoid the heat of the kitchen. Slow, gentle boiling is absolutely necessary in preserving and pickling.
Crushed or loaf sugar should be used for preserves, as it is less liable to ferment during the long hot summer.
Jelly bags may be made of cotton, linen, or flannel, and can be made like an old-fashioned reticule, with a string through the top, to close and suspend it while dripping.
It is a mistake to think dark fruits, like raspberries, strawberries, etc., can be preserved equally well with brown sugar, for the color of this sugar makes the preserves dark, or rather dingy, which is the proper word.
Glass is best for keeping preserves in, as they may be examined without opening the jars. When first put up they should be corked tightly, and dipped into coarse melted sealing-wax.
TO MAKE PRESERVES
Most fruits are much easier preserved than jellied. Weigh the fruit, and to each pound of fruit the usual rule is a pound of sugar; make a syrup of the sugar with a half pint of water to each pound of fruit. Boil it clear, then put in the fruit and cook it well, and boil gently till the fruit is clear.
TO GREEN FRUIT FOR PICKLING OR PRESERVING
Put vine leaves under, between, and over the fruit in a brass kettle, and over the leaves sprinkle a teaspoonful of beaten or ground alum; cover the fruit to be greened, with water, and boil it gently with the leaves and alum; if not a fine green, take more leaves and dust a little saleratus over them. Spread them out to cool when green, and proceed to preserve or pickle them as desired.