Part 30

Put the fruit into a stone jar; set this in a kettle of tepid water, and put it upon the fire. Let it boil, closely covered, until the fruit is broken to pieces; strain, pressing the bag (a stout coarse one) hard, putting in but a few handfuls at a time, and between each squeezing turning it inside out to scald off the pulp and skins. To each pint of juice allow a pound of sugar. Set the juice on alone to boil, and while it is warming divide the sugar into several different portions, and put into shallow pie-dishes or pans that will fit in your ovens; heat in these, opening the ovens now and then to stir it and prevent burning. Boil the juice just _twenty minutes_ from the moment it begins fairly to boil. By this time the sugar should be so hot you cannot bear your hand in it. Should it melt around the edges, do not be alarmed. The burned parts will only form into lumps in the syrup, and can easily be taken out. Throw the sugar into the boiling juice, stirring rapidly all the while. It will “hiss” as it falls in, and melt very quickly. Withdraw your spoon when you are sure it is dissolved. Let the jelly just come to a boil, to make all certain, and take the kettle instantly from the fire. Roll your glasses or cups in hot water, and fill with the scalding liquid. If these directions be strictly followed, and the fruit is at the proper state of ripeness, there need be no dread of failure. I have often had the jelly “form” before I filled the last glass.

I wish it were in my power, by making known the advantages of the process I have described, to put an end to the doubts and anxieties attendant upon the old-fashioned method of boiling jelly into a preserve. This plan is so simple and safe, the jelly made so superior in flavor and color to that produced by boiling down juice and fruit, that no one who has ever tried both ways can hesitate to give it the preference. I have put up jelly in no other way for eighteen years, and have never failed once.

Strawberry jelly should have a little lemon-juice added to that of the fruit. Both it and blackberry, and very ripe raspberry jelly, are apt to be less firm than that made from more tart fruits; still, do not boil it. Set it in the sun, as I have directed at the beginning of the section upon preserves and fruit jellies, filling one cup from another as the contents shrink. The sun will boil it down with less waste, and less injury to color and taste, than the fire will. Cooking jelly always darkens it.

Put brandied tissue-paper over the top of each glass when cold and firm, paste a thick paper over it, and keep in a dry place.

RASPBERRY AND CURRANT JELLY. ✠

To two parts red raspberries or “Blackcaps,” put one of red currants, and proceed as with other berry jelly.

The flavor is exquisite. This jelly is especially nice for cake.

WILD CHERRY AND CURRANT JELLY. ✠

Two-thirds wild cherries (stones and all) and one of red currants. A pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and make as you do plain currant jelly.

This, besides being very palatable and an excellent table jelly, is highly medicinal, good for coughs and any weakness of the digestive organs. I put it up first as an experiment, and because I chanced to have the cherries. Now I would not pass the winter without it, unless obliged to do so by a failure of the fruit crop.

PEACH JELLY. ✠

Crack one-third of the kernels and put them in the jar with the peaches, which should be pared, stoned, and sliced. Heat in a pot of boiling water, stirring from time to time until the fruit is well broken. Strain, and to every pint of peach juice add the juice of a lemon. Measure again, allowing a pound of sugar to a pint of liquid. Heat the sugar very hot, and add when the juice has boiled twenty minutes. Let it come to a boil, and take instantly from the fire.

This is very fine for jelly-cake.

GREEN FOX GRAPE JELLY ✠

Is made after the receipt for currant jelly, only allowing a pound and a half of sugar to a pint of juice.

Ripe grapes require but pound for pint.

QUINCE JELLY. ✠

Pare and slice the quinces, and add for every five pounds of fruit a cup of water. Put peelings, cores, and all into a stone jar; set this in a pot of boiling water, and, when the fruit is soft and broken, proceed as with other jellies.

CRAB-APPLE JELLY. ✠

Cut Siberian crab-apples to pieces, but do not pare or remove the seeds. The latter impart a peculiarly pleasant flavor to the fruit. Put into a stone jar, set in a pot of hot water, and let it boil eight or nine hours. Leave in the jar all night, covered closely. Next morning, squeeze out the juice, allow pound for pint, and manage as you do currant jelly.

Should the apples be very dry, add a cup of water for every six pounds of fruit.

There is no finer jelly than this in appearance and in taste.

CANNED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

Within a few years canned fruits have, in a great measure, superseded preserves. They are cheaper, more wholesome, and far less difficult to prepare. Attention to a few general rules will insure success to every housekeeper who sensibly prefers to put up her own season’s supply of these to purchasing those for double the cost, which are not nearly so good.

First, examine cans and elastics narrowly before you begin operations. See that the screw is in order, the can without crack or nick, the elastic firm and closely fitting.

Secondly, have the fruit boiling hot when sealed. Have upon the range or stove a pan in which each empty can is set to be filled after it is rolled in hot water. Lay elastic and top close to your hand, fill the can to overflowing, remembering that the fruit will shrink as it cools, and that a vacuum invites the air to enter; clap on the top without the loss of a second, screw as tightly as you can, and as the contents and the can cool, screw again and again to fit the contraction of metal and glass.

Thirdly, if you use glass cans (and they are cheapest in the end, for you can use them year after year, getting new elastics when you need them) keep them in a cool, dark place, and dry as well as cool. The light will cause them to ferment, and also change the color.

CANNED BERRIES. ✠

Heat slowly to boiling, in a large kettle. When they begin to boil, add sugar in the proportion of one tablespoonful to each quart of fruit. Before doing this, however, if there is much juice in the kettle, dip out the surplus with a dipper or cup. It will only increase the number of cans to be filled, without real advantage to you. Leave the berries almost dry before putting in the sugar. This will make syrup enough. Boil all together fifteen minutes, and can.

Huckleberries, grapes, blackberries, currants, raspberries, cherries, and strawberries put up in this way are very good, eaten as you would preserves, and make pies which are scarcely inferior to those filled with fresh fruit.

CANNED PEACHES. ✠

Pare, cut in half and stone, taking care not to break the fruit; drop each piece in cold water so soon as it is pared. The large, white freestone peaches are nicest for this purpose. Firmness of texture is a desideratum. The fruit should be ripe, but not soft. Allow a heaping tablespoonful of sugar to each quart of fruit, scattering it between the layers. Fill your kettle and heat slowly to a boil. Boil three minutes, just to assure yourself that every piece of fruit is heated through. Can and seal. It is safe to put a cupful of water in the bottom of the kettle before packing it with fruit, lest the lower layer should burn.

CANNED PEARS. ✠

For the finer varieties, such as the Bartlett and Seckel, prepare a syrup, allowing a pint of pure water and a quarter of a pound of sugar to a quart of fruit. While this is heating, peel the pears, dropping each, as it is pared, into a pan of clear water, lest the color should change by exposure to the air. When the syrup has come to a fast boil, put in the pears carefully, not to bruise them, and boil until they look clear and can be easily pierced by a fork. Have the cans ready, rolled in hot water, pack with the pears and fill to overflowing with the scalding syrup, which must be kept on the fire all the while, and seal.

The tougher and more common pears must be boiled in water until tender; thrown while warm into the hot syrup, then allowed to boil ten minutes before they are canned.

Apples may be treated in either of the above ways as their texture may seem to demand.

CANNED PLUMS. ✠

Prick with a needle to prevent bursting; prepare a syrup allowing a gill of pure water and a quarter of a pound of sugar to every three quarts of fruit. When the sugar is dissolved and the water blood-warm, put in the plums. Heat slowly to a boil. Let them boil five minutes—not fast or they will break badly, fill up the jars with plums, pour in the scalding syrup until it runs down the sides, and seal.

Greengages are very fine put up in this way; also damsons for pies.

CANNED TOMATOES. ✠

“I don’t hold with any of these new-fangled notions,” said an old lady to me, when I mentioned that my canning was over for the summer. “I was beguiled, two years ago, into putting up some _tomaytesses_ in cans, and if I’m forgiven for that folly I’ll never tempt Providence in the same manner again.”

“They didn’t keep, then?”

“Keep! they sp’iled in a week! ’Twas no more’n I expected and deserved for meddling with such a humbug.”

“Perhaps you did not follow the directions closely?”

“Indeed I did! I cooked the tormented things, and seasoned ’em with butter and salt, all ready for the table, and screwed the tops down tight. But, in course, they sp’iled!”

“Were you careful to put them into the cans boiling hot?”

“’Twould have cracked the glass! I let ’em get _nice and cold_ first. I didn’t suppose it made any difference about such a trifle as that!”

Poor old lady! I think of her and her mighty temptation of Providence whenever I can tomatoes, for heat _does_ make a difference—all the difference in the world in this sort of work.

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to loosen the skins. Remove these; drain off all the juice that will come away without pressing hard; put them into a kettle and heat slowly to a boil. Your tomatoes will look much nicer if you remove all the hard parts before putting them on the fire, and rub the pulp soft with your hands. Boil ten minutes, dip out the surplus liquid, pour the tomatoes, boiling hot, into the cans, and seal. Keep in a cool, dark place.

CANNED TOMATOES AND CORN. ✠

Boil the corn on the cob, when it is in nice order for roasting, twenty minutes over a good fire, and cut off while hot. Have your tomatoes skinned and rubbed to a smooth pulp. Put in two measures of them for every one of the cut corn; salt as for the table, stirring it well in, and bring to a hard boil. Then, can quickly, and as soon as they are cold set away in a cool, dark place.

PRESERVED GREEN CORN. ✠

Boil on the cob until the milk ceases to flow when the grain is pricked. Cut off the corn and pack in stone jars in the following order:—A layer of salt at the bottom, half an inch deep. Then one of corn two inches in depth, another half-inch of salt, and so on until the jar is nearly filled. Let the topmost layer of salt be double the depth of the others, and pour over all melted—not hot—lard. Press upon this, when nearly hard, thick white paper, cut to fit the mouth of the jar. Keep in a cool place. Soak over night before using it.

Green corn is difficult to can, but _I know_ it will keep well if put up in this way. And, strange to tell, be so fresh after the night’s soaking as to require salt when you boil it for the table. Should the top layer be musty, dig lower still, and you will probably be rewarded for the search.

BRANDIED FRUITS.

BRANDIED PEACHES OR PEARS. ✠

4 lbs. fruit. 4 lbs. sugar. 1 pint best white brandy.

Make a syrup of the sugar and enough water to dissolve it. Let this come to a boil; put the fruit in and boil five minutes. Having removed the fruit carefully, let the syrup boil fifteen minutes longer, or until it thickens well; add the brandy, and take the kettle at once from the fire; pour the hot syrup over the fruit, and seal.

If, after the fruit is taken from the fire, a reddish liquor oozes from it, drain this off before adding the clear syrup. Put up in glass jars.

Peaches and pears should be peeled for brandying. Plums should be pricked and watched carefully for fear of bursting.

BRANDIED CHERRIES OR BERRIES. ✠

Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a half gill of water for every two lbs. of fruit. Heat to boiling, stirring to prevent burning, and pour over the berries while warm—_not_ hot. Let them stand together an hour; put all into a preserving-kettle, and heat slowly; boil five minutes, take out the fruit with a perforated skimmer, and boil the syrup twenty minutes. Add a pint of brandy for every five pounds of fruit; pour over the berries hot, and seal.

CANDIES.

MOLASSES CANDY. ✠

1 quart good molasses. ½ cup vinegar. 1 cup sugar. Butter the size of an egg. 1 teaspoonful saleratus.

Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar, mix with the molasses, and boil, stirring frequently, until it hardens when dropped from the spoon into cold water; then stir in the butter and soda, the latter dissolved in hot water. Flavor to your taste, give one hard final stir, and pour into buttered dishes. As it cools, cut into squares for “taffy,” or, while soft enough to handle, pull white into sticks, using only the buttered tips of your fingers for that purpose.

SUGAR-CANDY. ✠

6 cups of sugar. 1 cup of vinegar. 1 cup of water. Tablespoonful of butter, put in at the last, with 1 teaspoonful saleratus dissolved in hot water.

Boil fast _without stirring_, an hour, or until it crisps in cold water. Pull white with the tips of your fingers.

Since children must eat candy, this is the best you can give them. It is very nice. Flavor to taste.

PICKLES.

Use none but the best cider vinegar; especially avoid the sharp colorless liquid sold under that name. It is weak sulphuric acid, warranted to riddle the coat of any stomach, even that of an ostrich, if that bird were so bereft of the instinct of self-preservation as to make a lunch of bright-green cucumber-pickle seven times a week.

If you boil pickles in bell-metal, do not let them stand in it one moment when it is off the fire; and see for yourself that it is perfectly clean and newly scoured before the vinegar is put in.

Keep pickles in glass or hard stoneware; look them over every month; remove the soft ones, and if there are several of these, drain off and scald the vinegar, adding a cup of sugar for each gallon, and pour hot over the pickles. If they are keeping well, throw in a liberal handful of sugar for every gallon, and tie them up again. This tends to preserve them, and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar. This does not apply to _sweet_ pickle.

Pickle, well made, is better when a year old than at the end of six months. I have eaten walnut pickle ten years old that was very fine.

Keep your pickles well covered with vinegar.

If you use ground spices, tie them up in thin muslin bags.

CUCUMBER OR GHERKIN PICKLE. ✠

Choose small cucumbers, or gherkins, for this purpose. They are more tender, and look better on the table. Reject all over a finger in length, and every one that is misshapen or specked, however slightly. Pack in a stone jar or wooden bucket, in layers, strewing salt thickly between these. Cover the top layer out of sight with salt, and pour on cold water enough to cover all. Lay a small plate or round board upon them, with a clean stone to keep it down. You may leave them in the brine for a week or a month, stirring up from the bottom every other day. If the longer time, be sure your salt and water is strong enough to bear up an egg. If you raise your own cucumbers, pick them every day, and drop in the pickle. When you are ready to put them up, throw away the brine, with any cucumbers that may have softened under the process, and lay the rest in cold fresh water for twenty-four hours. Change the water then for fresh, and leave it for another day. Have a kettle ready, lined with green vine-leaves, and lay the pickles evenly within it, scattering powdered alum over the layers. A bit of alum as large as a pigeon-egg will be enough for a two-gallon kettleful. Fill with cold water, cover with vine-leaves, three deep; put a close lid or inverted pan over all, and steam over a slow fire five or six hours, not allowing the water to boil. When the pickles are a fine green, remove the leaves and throw the cucumbers into very cold water. Let them stand in it while you prepare the vinegar. To one gallon allow a cup of sugar, three dozen whole black peppers, the same of cloves, half as much allspice, one dozen blades of mace. Boil five minutes; put the cucumbers into a stone jar, and pour the vinegar over them scalding hot. Cover closely. Two days afterward scald the vinegar again and return to the pickles. Repeat this process three times more, at intervals of two, four, and six days. Cover with a stoneware or wooden top; tie stout cloth over this, and keep in a cool, dry place. They will be ready for eating in two months. Examine every few weeks.

PICKLED MANGOES. ✠

Young musk or nutmeg melons. English mustard-seed two handfuls, mixed with Scraped horseradish, one handful. Mace and nutmeg pounded, 1 teaspoonful. Chopped garlic, 2 teaspoonfuls. A little ginger. Whole pepper-corns, 1 dozen. ½ tablespoonful of ground mustard to a pint of the mixture. 1 teaspoonful sugar to the same quantity. 1 teaspoonful best salad oil to the same. 1 teaspoonful celery-seed.

Cut a slit in the side of the melon; insert your finger and extract all the seeds. If you cannot get them out in this way, cut a slender piece out, saving it to replace,—but the slit is better. Lay the mangoes in strong brine for three days. Drain off the brine, and freshen in pure water twenty-four hours. Green as you would cucumbers, and lay in cold water until cold and firm. Fill with the stuffing; sew up the slit, or tie up with pack thread; pack in a deep stone jar, and pour scalding vinegar over them. Repeat this process three times more at intervals of two days, then tie up and set away in a cool, dry place.

They will not be “ripe” under four months, but are very fine when they are. They will keep several years.

PEPPER MANGOES. ✠

Are put up in the same way, using green peppers that are full grown, but not tinged with red.

They are very good, but your fingers will smart after thrusting them into the peppers to pull out the seeds. For this purpose I have used, first, a small penknife, to cut the core from its attachment to the stem-end of the pepper, then a smooth bit of stick, to pry open the slit in the side and work out the loose core or bunch of seed. By the exercise of a little ingenuity you may spare yourself all suffering from this cause. Should your fingers burn badly, anoint them with sweet-oil and wear gloves that night. Cream will also allay the smart.

PICKLED CABBAGE (_Yellow._)

2 gallons vinegar. 1 pint white mustard seed. } 4 oz. ginger. } 3 oz. pepper-corns. } 1 oz. allspice. } pounded fine. 2 oz. cloves. } 1 oz. mace. } 1 oz. nutmeg. } 2 oz. turmeric. } 1 large handful of garlic, chopped. 1 handful scraped horseradish. 4 lbs. sugar. 2 oz. celery seed. 3 lemons, sliced thin.

Mix all and set in the sun for three days.

To prepare the cabbage, cut in quarters—leaving off the outer and green leaves—and put in a kettle of boiling brine. Cook three minutes. Take out, drain, and cover thickly with salt. Spread out in the sun to dry; then shake off the salt, and cover with cold vinegar in which has been steeped enough turmeric to color it well. Leave it in this two weeks, to draw out the salt and to plump the cabbage. They are then ready to pack down in the seasoned vinegar. Do not use under six weeks or two months.

PICKLED CABBAGE (_Purple._)

Quarter the cabbage. Lay in a wooden tray, sprinkle thickly with salt, and set in the cellar until next day. Drain off the brine, wipe dry, lay in the sun two hours, and cover with cold vinegar for twelve hours. Prepare the pickle by seasoning enough vinegar to cover the cabbage with equal quantities of mace, cloves, whole white peppers; a cup of sugar to every gallon of vinegar, and a teaspoonful of celery seed for every pint. Pack the cabbage in a stone jar; boil the vinegar and spices five minutes and pour on hot. Cover and set away in a cool, dry place.

This will be ripe in six weeks.

PICKLED ONIONS.

Peel the onions, which should be fine white ones—not _too_ large. Let them stand in strong brine for four days, changing it twice. Heat more brine to a boil, throw in the onions, and boil three minutes. Throw them at once into cold water, and leave them there four hours. Pack in jars, interspersing with whole mace, white pepper-corns, and cloves. Fill up with scalding vinegar in which you have put a cupful of sugar for every gallon. Cork while hot.

They will be ready for use in a month, but will be better at the end of three months.

GREEN BEANS AND RADISH PODS.

Take young French or “string” beans, and radish pods just before they change color; green and pickle as you do cucumbers and gherkins.

NASTURTIUM-SEED. ✠

Take the green seed after the flower has dried off. Lay in salt and water two days, in cold water one day; pack in bottles and cover with scalding vinegar, seasoned with mace and white pepper-corns, and sweetened slightly with white sugar. Cork, and set away four weeks before you use them.

They are an excellent substitute for capers.

PICKLED BUTTERNUTS AND WALNUTS. ✠

Gather them when soft enough to be pierced by a pin. Lay them in strong brine five days, changing this twice in the meantime. Drain, and wipe them with a coarse cloth; pierce each by running a large needle through it, and lay in cold water for six hours.

To each gallon of vinegar allow a cup of sugar, three dozen each of whole cloves and black pepper-corns, half as much allspice, and a dozen blades of mace. Boil five minutes; pack the nuts in small jars and pour over them scalding hot. Repeat this twice within a week; tie up and set away.

They will be good to eat in a month—and very good too.

PICKLED CAULIFLOWER. ✠

Pick the whitest and closest bunches. Cut into small sprays or clusters. Plunge into a kettle of scalding brine and boil three minutes. Take them out, lay upon a sieve or a cloth, sprinkle thickly with salt, and, when dry, brush this off. Cover with cold vinegar for two days, setting the jar in the sun. Then pack carefully in glass or stoneware jars, and pour over them scalding vinegar seasoned thus:

To one gallon allow a cup of white sugar, a dozen blades of mace, a tablespoonful of celery-seed, two dozen white peppercorns and some bits of red pepper pods, a tablespoonful of coriander-seed, and the same of whole mustard. Boil five minutes. Repeat the scalding once a week for three weeks; tie up and set away. Keep the cauliflowers under the vinegar by putting a small plate on top.

SLICED CUCUMBER PICKLE. (_Very nice._)

2 dozen large cucumbers, sliced, and boiled in vinegar enough to cover them, one hour. Set aside in the hot vinegar. To each gallon of cold vinegar allow— 1 lb. sugar. 1 tablespoonful of cinnamon. 1 teaspoonful ginger. 1 teaspoonful black pepper. 1 teaspoonful celery-seed. 1 teaspoonful of mace. 1 teaspoonful allspice. 1 teaspoonful cloves. 1 tablespoonful turmeric. 1 tablespoonful horseradish, scraped. 1 tablespoonful garlic, sliced. ½ teaspoonful cayenne pepper.

Put in the cucumbers and stew two hours.

The pickle will be ready for use so soon as it is cold.