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Preserves and Pickles

BRANDIED PEACHES. - Put fine large freestone peaches into a weak solution of hot soda-water only until the fur is losened sufficiently to rub off with a coarse cloth, make a syrup of white sugar allowing half a pound sugar to one of fruit, when boiling add fruit and boil for five minutes, remove fruit and boil syrup fifteen minutes longer, or till thick, add one pint of brandy for each pound of fruit and take syrup at once from fire and pour while hot over fruit, (in glass jars,) and seal; if a reddish juice oozes from fruit while draining, pour it off before adding clear syrup; pears must be pared with a knife before being brandied. Plums and appricots are brandied by this receipe pricking before dropping in syrup to prevent bursting; the large amber colored and blue are best. Cherries are similarly brandied using however, one pound of sugar to one of fruit; use the short stemmed bright red cherries in bunches, not too ripe lest skins crack; be careful to cork all fruits tightly. - Mrs. Judge W. Jones, St. Joe, Mo.

SWEET PICKLED PEACHES. - Prepare a syrup in the proportion of one quart best cider vinegar to three pints brown sugar; boil and skim. Peel fruit by placing in a wire basket, plunging into boiling hot water, then in cold water, so as to readily remove skin; to spice use two teaspoons of whole cloves and four sticks of cinnamon to a gallon of fruit; many prefer to stick a few cloves in each peach and add broken cinnamon to syrup. Throw peaches in boiling syrup for five minutes, remove them into a jar, boil syrup until quite thick, pour over fruit and tie covers on jars; this is a German style of preparing them.-L. A. Clarkson, Atlanta, Ga. GREEN TOMATO PRESERVES. - Make a syrup of seven pounds sugar; take eight pounds small green tomatoes, pierce with a fork and add when syrup boils; add juice of four lemons and one ounce of mace and ginger, mixed. Boil all slowly until fruit is clear, then remove with a perforated skimmer, cool on dishes; boil syrup till thick, put fruit in jars and cover with hot syrup. A favorite preserve, and very nice if directions be strictly followed.-M. Harland, Virginia.

WALNUT CATSUP. - Crush to a pulp one fourth peck of green nuts size of hickory nut, rind and all, place in a stew jar and cover with strong vinegar, let stand twenty-four hours, then put in a stout cloth and press all juice out, boil fifteen minutes, clarifying with beaten white of an egg before boiling begins, while boiling add pepper and allspice to taste, tied in a bag, when cool add fresh vinegar, if needed, as without it may be too bitter to bottle; put two or three cloves of garlic to each bottle and cork tightly. It keeps for years-virtue increasing with age; this is unrivalled. Taken as a medicine for cough, it is most excellent; dose, a teaspoon three times a day.