Page:The English housekeeper, 6th.djvu/337

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PRESERVES.
309

rather more, if the fruit be very acid; then boil gently from ten to twenty minutes, or until it jellies strongly in falling from the skimmer, but stir it all the while, and take off all the scum as it rises. Pour it into glasses or moulds: it ought to be firm enough to turn out of the latter, and be rich and transparent.

Damson and Bullace Cheese.

Put the fruit into a stone jar, cover it, and set it on a hot hearth, or in an oven, and let it coddle for about six hours, stirring it now and then. Pulp the damsons through a sieve, add ½ lb. lump sugar to every 2 lbs. of fruit, and some of the kernels, blanched, and beaten in a mortar. Put it all in a stew-pan, and boil very gently for two or three hours (it can hardly boil too long, as boiling makes it firm), skimming carefully all the time. Some persons boil it only one hour; it is clearer, but less firm. Some add a very few bitter almonds, blanched and cut small.

Apricot Cheese.

Pare, then boil them with their weight of sugar, previously melted with a very little water; as the fruit breaks, take out the stones, blanch and pound the kernels, and put them to the fruit. Let the apricots boil, not more than half an hour. Pour the cheese into shapes.

Orange Cheese.

Scrape off the outward rind of Seville oranges, take out the pulp and skin, boil the peel tender, in water, beat it in a marble mortar to a pulp, add its weight of loaf sugar (already dissolved in the juice), and boil it quickly an hour; when done pour it into moulds, or on plates, to cut in shapes. Keep it in a dry place.

Pine Apple to Preserve.

Pare off the rind, and divide the pine apple into rather thick slices; boil the rind in ½ pint water, with 1 lb. loaf sugar in powder, and the juice of a lemon, twenty minutes. Strain this liquor, and boil the slices in it for half an hour;