ORGEAT SYRUP WITHOUT ORANGE FLOWERS
Make a syrup of a pound of sugar to every pint of water; boil this a few minutes, skim it clear, and when cold, to every four pounds of sugar used, allow a gill of orange water, or rose water, and two tablespoonfuls of pure essence of bitter almonds. Serve it in iced water.
ORANGE SYRUP
This syrup is so easily made, and oranges are so abundant here, that it is advantageous to make this syrup in the season of orange harvest, in Louisiana. To make it, you must select ripe and thin-skinned fruit; squeeze the juice, and to every pint, add a pound and a quarter of white sugar; boil it slowly, and skim as long as any scum rises; you may then take it off, let it grow cold, and bottle it. Be sure to secure the corks well. This is nice for a summer drink for delicate persons; it is also very convenient for pudding sauces, as half a cup of this syrup, mixed with melted butter, is admirable, where wine is not used. The flavor is so fine, it requires very little spicing to make it agreeable.
BRANDIED FRUITS, WINES AND CORDIALS
PEACHES IN BRANDY
Soak fine peaches in lye until you can remove the fuzzy outside; wipe them, and turn them into cold water. When you have prepared as many as you desire, weigh them, and to every pound of fruit, put three quarters of a pound of white sugar. Make a syrup like that for preserves, only using less water; boil the peaches in the syrup until they are tender; then take them out of the kettle, and place them in jars; fill up the jars with a brandy syrup, made of a pint of brandy, to a pint of the sugar syrup from the peaches. Cook them very carefully, and dip the mouths of the jars in rosin melted, and keep them in a cool dark place.
APRICOTS IN BRANDY
Peaches and apricots are brandied the same way. Gather them as fresh as possible. Apricots should be taken from the tree as soon as ripe, as they soften so rapidly. Rub each one with a coarse towel, but do not peel it. Make a syrup of half the weight of the fruit in sugar, and just water enough to dissolve it. When the syrup is prepared and hot, put in the apricots, let them simmer until tender; then take the fruit out, and place it on dishes, then expose them to the sun, or in a warm oven to dry and harden. Boil the syrup again, after the fruit is out, until it is quite rich and thick. Skim it carefully. When the apricots are cold and firm, put them in white earthen preserve-jars and fill up with syrup and brandy, half and half. Tie up with bladder skin.