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Preserves and Fruit Jellies

Always make preserves in a porcelain or brass kettle. If the latter, have it scoured first with sand, then with salt and vinegar. Then scald it and put in the sugar and water for the syrup.

In peeling fruit, throw it into cold water to keep it from turning dark, and let it remain there till you are ready to throw it in the boiling syrup. Bear in mind that exposure to the air turns peeled fruit dark. Boil rather quickly. In preserving fruit whole, boil it a short time in the syrup, take it out, let it get cold, and then put it again in the kettle. Cut sugar is best for preserves which you wish to be clear and light-colored, but nice brown sugar is best for dark-colored jams and marmalades, such as those made of blackberries, raspberries, whortleberries, etc. The best peaches for preserving, brandying, or pickling, are white freestone peaches, not quite ripe enough to eat with cream. Pears and quinces also should be preserved before they are quite ripe enough for eating. They should be parboiled before eating. No fruit should be over-ripe when preserved. Damsons and blue plums should be slit lengthwise with a pen knife, and set in the sun before preserving, which will render it easy to extract the stones. Cherries also should be stoned before preserving. A piece of paper dipped in brandy and laid on top the preserves will help to keep them. I would suggest to housekeepers that they always put their preserves in glass jars with screw tops. By this means they can readily inspect it and see if it is keeping well, without the trouble of untying the jar and looking inside, as would be necessary in the case of stone jars.

Set the jar of preserves, if they become dry or candied, in a pot of cold water, which allow to come gradually to a boil. If the preserves ferment, boil them over with more sugar.

The great secret of making nice fruit jelly is to boil the syrup well before adding the sugar (which should always be loaf or cut), and you should allow a pound of sugar to a point of the juice in acid fruit jellies, though less will answer for sweet fruit. By boiling the syrup well before adding the sugar, the flavor and color of the fruit are retained. Keep the jelly in small, common glasses.