A New System of Domestic Cookery

page 228

and forms a jam. Keep it in small jars in a dry place. I f too sweet, mix with
it some of the fruit that is done without sugar.

Another way.--Choose steen-pots if you can get them, which are of equal size top
and bottom (they should hold eight or nine pounds); put the fruit in about a
quarter up, then strew in a quarter of the sugar; then another quantity of
fruit, and so till all of both are in. The proportion of sugar is to be three
pounds to nine pounds of fruit. Set the jars in the oven, and bake the fruit
quite through. When cold, put a piece of clean-scraped stick into the middle of
the jar, and let the upper part stand above the top; then pour melted
mutton-suet over the top, full half an inch thick, having previously covered the
fruit with white paper. Keep the jars in a cool dry place, and use the suet as a
cover; which you will draw up by the stick, minding to leave a little forked
branch to it to prevent its slipping out.

To preserve Fruit for Tarts, or Family-deserts.
Cherries, plums of all sorts, and American apples, gather when ripe, and lay
them in small jars that will hold a pound; strew over each jar six ounces of
good loaf-sugar pounded; cover with two bladders each, separately tied down;
then set the jars in a large stew-pan of water up to the neck, and let it boil
three hours gently. Keep these and all other sorts of fruit free from damp.

To keep Lemon-juice.
Buy the fruit when cheap, keep it in a cool place two or three days, if too
unripe to squeeze readily; cut the peel off some, and roll them under your hand
to make them part with the juice more readily; others you may leave unpared for
grating, when the pulp shall be taken out and dried. Squeeze the juice into a
China basin; then strain it through some muslin, which will not permit the least
pulp to pass. Have ready half and quarter ounce phials perfectly dry; fill them
with the juice so near the top as only to admit half a tea-spoonful of sweet

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