APPLE JELLY

Select sound, red, fine-flavored apples not too ripe; wash, wipe and core; place in a granite kettle, cover with water and let cook slowly until the apples look red. Pour into a muslin bag and drain; return juice to a clean kettle and boil one-half hour; skim. Now measure and to every pint of juice, allow a pound of sugar; boil quickly for ten minutes. Red apples will give jelly the color of wine while that from light fruit will be like amber.

SPICED FRUITS

These are also called sweet pickle fruits. For four pounds prepared fruit allow one pint vinegar, two pounds brown sugar, one-half cup whole spices—cloves, allspice, stick cinnamon, and cassia-bude. Tie spices in thin muslin bag, boil ten minutes with vinegar and sugar. Skim, add fruit, cook till tender. Boil down syrup, pour over fruit in jars, and seal. If put in stone pots, boil syrup three successive mornings and pour over fruit. Currants, peaches, grapes, pears and berries may be prepared in this way, also ripe cucumbers, muskmelons, and watermelon rind.

PLUM JELLY

Take plums not too ripe, put in a granite pan and set in a pan of water over the fire. Let the water boil gently till all the juice has come from the fruit, strain through a flannel bag and boil with an equal weight of sugar twenty minutes.

CRAB-APPLE JELLY

Select juicy apples. Mealy ones are no good. Wash and quarter and put into a preserving kettle over the fire with a teacupful of water. If necessary add more water as it evaporates. When boiled to a pulp strain the apples through a flannel bag, then proceed as for other jelly.

PRESERVED PEACHES

Select the yellow red-cheeked ones if possible (skin same as tomatoes, by pouring on boiling water, then thrusting them in cold water and separate in halves). Proceed as for preserving cherries, only using three-quarters of a pound of sugar to every pound of fruit.

PRESERVED CHERRIES

Select the large cherries, remove the stems and stone them carefully. To each pound of sugar allow one pound of cherries. Put fruit in granite pan and pour over them the sugar. Stir up and let stand over night to candy. In the morning put all into the preserving pan, place on the stove and boil gently until the cherries look clear, skimming off the scum as it rises. When the cherries have become quite clear, remove the pan from the stove and seal. Keep in dry, dark closet.

PRESERVED TOMATOES

A pound of sugar to a pound of tomatoes. Take six pounds of each; the peel and juice of four lemons and a quarter of a pound of ginger tied up in a bag; put on the side of the range and boil slowly for three hours.

STRAWBERRY JAM

To six pounds of strawberries allow three pounds of sugar. Procure some fine scarlet strawberries, strip off the stalks and put them into a preserving pan over a moderate fire, boil them for half an hour, keeping them constantly stirred. Break the sugar into small pieces and mix them with the strawberries after they have been removed from the fire. Then place it again over the fire and boil for another half hour very quickly. Put it into pots, and when cold cover it over with brandy papers and a piece of paper moistened with the white of an egg over the tops.

LEMON MARMALADE

Peel as many lemons as you wish and take out every seed. Boil the peel until very soft, add juice and pulp with a pound of sugar to a pound of lemons. Boil until thick and bottle.

GRAPE MARMALADE

Take sound grapes, heat and remove the seeds, then measure, and allow measure for measure of fruit and sugar. Place all together in a preserving kettle and boil slowly twenty-five minutes; add the juice of one lemon to every quart of fruit. Set away in jelly glasses.

TO PRESERVE PLUMS

To every pound of fruit allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar. Divide the plums, take out the stones, and put the fruit on a dish with pounded sugar strewed over; the next day put them into a preserving pan and let them simmer gently by the side of the fire for about thirty minutes, then boil them quickly; removing the scum as it rises, and keep them constantly stirred, or the jam will stick to the bottom of the pan. Crack the stones and add the kernels to the preserve when it boils.

QUINCE PRESERVES

Pare and core the fruit and boil till very tender. Make a syrup of a pound of sugar for each pound of the fruit and after removing the scum boil the quinces in this syrup for one-half hour.

PRESERVED LEMON PEEL

Make a thick syrup of white sugar, chop the lemon peel fine and boil it in the syrup ten minutes; put in glass tumblers and paste paper over. A teaspoonful of this makes a loaf of cake, or a dish of sauce nice.

BLACKBERRY JAM

Crush a quart of fully ripe blackberries with a pound of the best loaf sugar pounded very fine; put it into a preserving pan, and set it over a gentle fire until thick, add a glass of brandy, and stir it again over the fire for about a quarter of an hour; then put it into pots and when cold tie them over.