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General Rule for Making Preserves

Weigh the prepared fruit and take an equal weight of sugar. If the fruit be soft, put a layer in a saucepan and sprinkle on sugar; add another layer of fruit and another layer of sugar.

Let heat gradually to the boiling-point, boil about ten minutes, skim, and store in small glasses.

If the fruits be firm, boil in barely enough water to cover until tender; skim out the fruit, add the sugar to the liquid, boil ten minutes, skim, add the fruit, and let cook from ten minutes to half an hour. If a thicker syrup be desired, cook twenty minutes before adding the fruit, or cook longer, after removing the fruit to the jars.

In the making of jams, marmalades, and butters, in which crushed fruit-pulp is cooked with its weight or nearly its weight in sugar, or other sweet such as honey, the best results, in general, are obtained when the addition of the sugar is delayed until the greater part of the water has been evaporated in cooking.

In the making of marmalade from citrus fruits, long cooking is essential to reduce the rind to tenderness. If sugar be added before the rind is exceedingly tender, no amount of cooking will render it soft and edible.