Many add a little juice of lemon to pear, crab-apple, and plum preserves. I would recommend a very little. In the case of peaches, more flavor is gained by boiling the pits, if they are cling-stone (which they should be—the White Heath being the best preserving peach), and after straining the water using it to make the sirup. They will be firmer by laying the uncooked peaches into the sirup, and letting them remain in it overnight, cooking them the next morning. Others harden fruit by letting it remain ten or fifteen minutes in alum-water. This impairs the flavor. However, for good, clear preserves, I prefer the first method of preserving them, using the pits for the water with which to make peach marmalade. Peach marmalade and peach preserves should be made at the same time, when the peaches of less pretentious appearance can be used for the marmalade. Boil preserves without a cover to the kettle.
Citron Preserves (Miss Leslie).
The citrons can be pared, cored, and sliced, or cut into fancy shapes with cutters which are made for the purpose. To six pounds of the citron, use six pounds of sugar, four lemons, and a quarter of a pound of ginger-root.
Put the slices of lemon into a preserving-kettle, and boil them for half an hour, or until they look clear, in a little clear water; then drain them. Save the water, and put the slices into another dish with a little cold water; cover them, and let them stand overnight. In the morning wrap the root-ginger (bruised) in a thin muslin cloth; boil it in three pints of clear water until the water is highly flavored, when take out the bag of ginger. Having broken up the loaf-sugar, put it into the preserving-kettle with the ginger-water. When the sugar is all melted, set it over the fire; boil, and skim until no more scum rises. Then put in the pieces of citron and the juice of the lemons. Boil them in the sirup till all the slices are quite transparent. Do not allow them to break. When done, put them into the cans or jars, pouring the sirup carefully over them. If one desires to imitate the West Indies ginger preserve, the slices of lemon may not be added; yet they are a pretty addition.
Quince Preserves (Mrs. Hazard).
Pare, core, and quarter the quinces. Select the best-looking quarters for the preserves; the inferior-looking ones reserve, with the cores and skins, for the marmalade.
For the preserves, allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Make a sirup as before described (sirup for preserves), allowing one pint of water to two pounds of sugar. When it is clear, and still boiling-hot, add the hot quinces, which have been boiled in just enough clear water to cover them well-boiled until they are tender, or are easily pierced with a broom-straw—no longer. The preserves are now ready to be put away. With this proportion of fruit, water, and sugar, the preserves will not have much juice. What there is will form a thin, clear jelly around the quinces after they are kept a short time: the hot sirup will draw juice from the hot quinces to flavor and color it just enough. There is much difference in the choice of quinces. There is a kind which makes a white or light-colored preserve, very inferior in flavor to the large quince, which makes the red.
Tomato Preserves (Mrs. Wilson).
Choose little red, plum-shaped tomatoes, if red preserves are desired, and the small yellow ones for yellow preserves. Peel, and prick them with a large needle; boil them slowly for half an hour in preserving-sirup, with the juice of one lemon to every two pounds of tomatoes; add also a little bag of ginger-root; then skim out the tomatoes; let them remain two or three hours in the sun to harden. Put the white of an egg into the sirup; boil and skim well, and pour it over the tomatoes. The old rule is a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. I prefer three-quarters of a pound of the former to a pound of the latter. The yellow tomatoes are preferable.