TO PRESERVE PEACHES
Select white clings if you desire to preserve them whole. Yellow peaches make the most transparent preserve, but cannot always be procured. If white clings are convenient, peel and weigh them, and to each pound of fruit put one pound of sugar and half a pint of water. Put the syrup to boil, clarify it with an egg, and as it boils remove the scum. Keep the peaches in cold water all the time the syrup is boiling, as water keeps the fruit in good color, while leaving it exposed darkens it. When the syrup has boiled clear, put in the peaches; let them boil gently for half an hour, then take them out on a dish for two hours; put them back in the syrup and boil again until they are clear; they are then done, and you can put them in jars and pour the syrup over them, and cork and seal up for future use.
ANOTHER WAY TO PRESERVE PEACHES
Peel, cut and weigh six pounds of peaches; take six pounds of fine white sugar, throw the sugar on the peaches until they are well covered, and let them stay all night. Early in the morning add three pints of water, and boil all together for one hour. Skim carefully, and then take the peaches out on a large dish, still keeping the syrup gently boiling, and skimming it as it boils. Lay the peaches in the sun on dishes for at least two hours, to harden. Taking the fruit out of the syrup a few times improves it, giving it firmness and transparency. Now replace the peaches in the syrup, and boil gently until they are clear. Cut peaches are much more easily kept than peaches preserved whole, but they are not so highly flavored. Cut fruit does not require so much boiling as whole fruit; this should be remembered in preserving.
PRESERVED CITRON
Pare off the green skin and all the soft part of the rind, then cut the firm part in strips, or any shape you fancy. Allow a pound and a quarter of sugar to each pound of rind; line your porcelain kettle with grapevine leaves and fill with the rind, scattering a little pulverized alum over each layer. Cover with vine-leaves three thick, pour on water enough to reach and wet these and cover with a close lid. Let them heat together for three hours, but the water must not actually boil. Take out the rind, which will be well greened by this process, and throw at once into very cold water. Let it soak for four hours, changing the water for fresh every hour. Then make a syrup, allowing two cups of water to every pound and a quarter of syrup. Boil and skim until no more scum comes up; put in the rind and simmer gently nearly an hour. Take it out and spread on dishes in the sun until firm and almost cool. Simmer in the syrup for half an hour; spread out again, and when firm put into a large bowl and pour over it the scalding syrup. Next day put the syrup again over the fire, add the juice of a lemon and a tiny bit of ginger-root for every pound of rind. Boil down until thick, pack the rind in jars and pour over it the syrup. Tie up when cool.
TO PRESERVE PEARS
Take small rich pears, and boil them gently in water until they will yield to the pressure of the finger. They must not be soft, or they will not preserve well. Take them out when a little boiled; let them cool, and pare them neatly, leaving a little of the stem on, as well as the blossom end. Make a syrup of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit, and when it is boiling hot, pour it on the pears; next day boil them in the syrup till clear, and bottle them for use.
PINEAPPLE PRESERVES
Take fine pineapples, cut off all the rough parts, and each apple in quarters, shaping each piece alike. Boil the pineapples in just enough water to cover them, and put to this water all the cuttings, so as to make the syrup as rich in flavor as possible. When the pieces are tender, take them out, weigh them, and make a syrup of a pound of sugar to each pound of fruit, allowing a cup of the water the pineapples were boiled in, to each pound of fruit. Strain the water over the sugar, mix it, and let it boil fifteen minutes, by itself; skim it, and put in the pineapples, letting them boil until they are clear and perfectly tender. Pears done in this way make a delicious preserve. The usual way of putting them in the syrup without previous boiling, makes them little better than sweetened leather, as it makes them tough and stringy.