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Strawberries, Preserved

The fruit must be gathered in very dry weather, when there has been no rain for at least two days. Take equal weights of loaf sugar broken into pieces and picked fruit. Barely cover the sugar with cold water, and add a pinch of cream of tartar. Melt the sugar, put it on the fire, and boil it until a little of it which has been dropped from the end of a spoon into some very cold water can be rolled into a soft ball, which is not at all sticky. When the sugar has reached this condition put the strawberries into it, cover the pan, and leave it for an hour. Place it on a quick fire, boil it for two minutes, skim it well, and it is done. There is another method of preserving strawberries or raspberries which is very much approved. Pick the fruit, and press it with a wooden spoon through a coarse sieve. Weigh it, and allow a pound of sugar to every pound of pulp. Boil the sugar, and as soon as it has attained the fourth degree (see SUGAR BOILING) mix the pulp with it. Let it stand for five minutes, stir it over the fire till it boils, and it is done. If liked, the sugar, instead of being boiled, may be crushed to powder and incorporated with the pulp, which must then be put into bottles, and boiled as in STRAWBERRIES, BOTTLED. There is another mode of preserving them whole, by placing them, when they are freshly gathered, into glass pickle-bottles, strewing their weight of sifted sugar over as they are put in, and filling up the bottles with either boiling-hot malaga wine or boiling sweet malmsey. This is the most expensive, though the least troublesome. (See next recipe.)