Home › Cookery › Ripe Muskmelon or Watermelon Preserves

Ripe Muskmelon or Watermelon Preserves

During the summer, peel and slice indifferent cantaleupes (such as you do not care to eat), especially such as are not quite ripe. Throw them into brine, together with your thickest watermelon rinds, peeling off the outside skin. When you have enough, weigh them, throw them in fresh water, which change daily till the salt is extracted. Boil in a preserving kettle till soft enough to pierce with a straw. Make a syrup, allowing one pound sugar for each pound fruit. When it boils, put the rind in it and simmer steadily till the rind is transparent and the syrup thick. When cool, add the juice and grated rind of twelve lemons. Let it stand in a bowl several days. Then strain the syrup (which will have become thin), boil it again, pour over the rind, and put the preserves in glass jars with screw tops.--Mrs. S. T.