To dry Cherries, with Sugar.
Stone six pounds of Kentish; put them into a preservingpan, with two pounds of loaf sugar pounded and strewed among them: simmer till they begin to shrivel, then strain them from the juice; lay them on a hot hearth, or in an oven, when either are cool enough to dry without baking them.
The same syrup will do another six pounds of fruit.
To dry Cherries without Sugar.
Stone and set them over the fire in the preservingpan: let them simmer in their own liquor, and shake them in the pan. Put them by in China common dishes. Next day give them another scald, and put them, when cold, on sieves to dry, in an oven of at tempered heat as above. Twice heating, an hour each time, will do them.
Put them in a box, with a paper between each layer.
Excellent Sweetmeats for Tarts, when Fruit is plentiful.
Divide two pounds of apricots when just ripe, and take out and break the stones. Put the kernels without their skins to the fruit: add to it three pounds of green gage plums, and two pounds and a half of lump sugar. Simmer until the fruit be a clear jam. The sugar should be broken in large pieces, and just dipped in water, and added to the fruit over a slow fire. Observe that it does not boil, and skim it well. If the sugar be clarified it will make the jam better.
Put it into small pots; in which, all sweetmeats keep best.