CHAPTER VIII.
Of Preserves.

Of Preserves are sundry sorts, and the operation of all being somewhat different, we will handle them all apart. These are preserved with sugar:

1. Flowers are very seldom preserved; I never saw any that I remember, save only cowslip flowers, and that was a great fashion in Sussex when I was a boy. It is thus done, Take a flat glass, we call them jat glasses; strew on a laying of fine sugar, on that a laying of flowers, and on that another laying of sugar, on that another laying of flowers, so do till your glass be full; then tie it over with a paper, and in a little time, you shall have very excellent and pleasant preserves.

There is another way of preserving flowers; namely, with vinegar and salt, as they pickle capers and broom-buds; but as I have little skill in it myself, I cannot teach you.

2. Fruits, as quinces, and the like, are preserved two ways;

(1.) Boil them well in water, and then pulp them through a sieve, as we shewed you before; then with the like quantity of sugar, boil the water they were boiled in into a syrup, viz. a pound of sugar to a pint of liquor; to every pound of this syrup, add four ounces of the pulp; then boil it with a very gentle fire to their right consistence, which you may easily know if you drop a drop of it upon a trencher; if it be enough, it will not stick to your fingers when it is cold.

(2.) Another way to preserve fruits is this; First, Pare off the rind; then cut them in halves, and take out the core: then boil them in water till they are soft; if you know when beef is boiled enough, you may easily know when they are; Then boil the water with its like weight of sugar into a syrup; put the syrup into a pot, and put the boiled fruit as whole as you left it when you cut it into it, and let it remain until you have occasion to use it.

3. Roots are thus preserved; First, Scrape them very clean, and cleanse them from the pith, if they have any, for some roots have not, as Eringo and the like; Boil them in water till they be soft, as we shewed you before in the fruits; then boil the water you boiled the root in into a syrup, as we shewed you before; then keep the root whole in the syrup till you use them.