Pare and slice pippins, or sharp apples, into a stewpan, with just as much water as will cover them; boil them as fast as possible till half the liquid is wasted; then strain them through a jelly-bag, and to every pint of juice put three quarters of a pound of sugar. Boil it again till it becomes jelly; put lemon-juice and lemon-peel to the palate. Some threads of lemon-peel should remain in the jelly.
_Apple Jelly._ No. 2.
Take about a half sieve of john apples, or golden pippins; pare them, and put them in a clean bright copper pan; add as much river water as will cover them; set them over a charcoal fire, turning them now and then, till they are boiled tender. Put a hair-sieve over a pan, and throw them on to drain; then put the apples in a large pan or mortar, and beat them into pulp. Put them back into the copper pan, adding about half the water that came from them; then set them on the fire, and stir them till they boil two or three minutes. Strain them into a flannel jelly-bag; it should run out quite slowly, and be thick like syrup; you should allow it six or eight hours to run or drop. Then measure the jelly into a bright copper pan, and to each pint add one pound of treble-refined sugar; put it on a slow fire till the sugar is melted; then let the fire be made up, that it may boil; keep skimming it constantly. When you hold up the skimmer near the window, or in the cool, and you perceive it hangs about half an inch, with a drop at the end, then add the juice of half a lemon, if a small quant.i.ty. Take it off the fire, and pour it into gallipots.
The apples that are supposed to have the most jelly in them in this country are the john apple. The best time to make the jelly is the autumn; the riper they get, the less jelly. If the flannel bag is quite new, it should be washed in several clean warm waters, without soap. The jelly, if well made, should appear like clear water, about the substance of currant-jelly.
_Apple Jelly._ No. 3.
Take apples, of a light green, without any spot or redness, and rather sour; cut them in quarters, taking out the cores, and put them into a quart of water; let them boil to a pulp, and strain it through a hair-sieve, or jelly-bag. To a pint of liquor take a pound of double-refined sugar; wet your sugar, and boil it to a thick syrup, with the white and sh.e.l.l of an egg: then strain your syrup, and put your liquor to it. Let it boil again, and, as it boils, put in the juice of a lemon and the peel, pared extremely thin, and cut as fine as threads; when it jellies, which you may know by taking up some in your spoon, put it in moulds; when cold, turn it out into your dish; it should be so transparent as to let you see all the flowers of your china dish through it, and quite white.
_Crab Jam or Jelly._
Pare and core the crabs; to fifteen pounds of crabs take ten pounds of sugar, moistened with a little water; boil them well, skimming the top.
When boiled tender, and broke to the consistency of jam, pour it into your pans, and let it stand twenty-four hours. It is better the second year than the first. The crabs should be ripe.
_Pippin or Codling-Jelly._
Slice a pound of pippins or codlings into a pint of clear spring water; let them boil till the water has extracted all the flavour of the fruit; strain it out, and to a pint of this liquor take a pound of double-refined sugar, boiled to sugar again; then put in your codling liquor; boil it a little together as fast as you can. Put in your golden pippins; boil them up fast for a little while; just before the last boiling, squeeze in the juice of a lemon; boil it up quick once more, taking care the apples do not lose their colour; cut them, and put them in gla.s.ses with the jelly. It makes a very pretty middle or corner dish.
_Apples and Pears, to dry._
Take Kirton pippins or royal russets, golden pippins or nonpareils; finely pare and quarter the russets, and pare and take out the core also of the smaller apples. Take the clean tops of wicker baskets or hampers, and put the apples on the wickers in a cool oven. Let them remain in till the oven is quite cold: then they must be turned as you find necessary, and the cool oven repeated till they are properly dry.
They must stand some time before they are baked, and kept carefully from the damp air. The richer the pears the better; but they must not be over-ripe.
_Apricots in Brandy._
The apricots must be gathered before they are quite ripe, and, as the fruit is usually riper on one side than the other, you must p.r.i.c.k the unripe side with the point of a penknife, or a very large needle. Put them into cold water, and give them a great deal of room in the preserving-pan; and proceed in the same manner as directed for peaches.
If they are not well coloured, it is owing to an improper choice of the fruit, being too ripe or too high coloured, provided the brandy be of the right sort.
_Apricot Chips._
Cut apricots when ripe in small thin pieces; take double-refined sugar, pounded very small and sifted through a fine sieve, and strew a little at the bottom of a silver basin; then put in your chips, and more of your sugar. Set them over a chaffing-dish of coals, shaking your basin, lest the chips should stick to the bottom, till you put in your sugar.
When your sugar is all candied, lay them on gla.s.s plates; put them in a stove, and turn them out.
_Apricot Burnt Cream._
Boil a pint of cream with some bitter almonds pounded, and strain it off. When the cream is cold, add to it the yolks of four eggs, with half a spoonful of flour, well mixed together; set it over the fire; keep stirring it till it is thick. Add to it a little apricot jam; put it in your dish; sift powdered sugar over it, and brown it with your salamander.
_Apricots, to dry._
Pare and stone a pound of apricots, and put to them three quarters of a pound of double-refined sugar, strewing some of the sugar over the apricots as you pare them, that they may not lose colour. When they are all pared put the remainder of the sugar on them; let them stand all night, and in the morning boil them on a quick fire till they are clear.
Then let them stand till next day covered with a sheet of white paper.
Set them on a gentle fire till scalding hot; let them stand three days in the syrup; lay them out on stone plates; put them into a stove, and turn them every day till they are dry.
_Apricot Jam._
Take two pounds of apricot paste in pulp and a pint of strong codling liquor; boil them very fast together till the liquor is almost wasted; then put to it one pound and a half of fine sugar pounded; boil it very fast till it jellies; put it into pots, and it will make clear cakes in the winter.
_Apricot and Plum Jam._
Stone the fruit; set them over the fire with half a pint of water; when scalded, rub them through a sieve, and to every pound of pulp put a pound of sifted loaf-sugar. Set it over a brisk fire in a preserving-pan; when it boils, skim it well, and throw in the kernels of the apricots and half an ounce of bitter almonds blanched; boil it together fast for a quarter of an hour, stirring it all the time.
_Apricot Paste._
Take ripe apricots, pare, stone, and quarter them, and put them into a skillet, setting them on embers, and stirring them till all the pieces are dissolved. Then take three quarters of their weight in fine sugar, and boil it to a candy; put in the apricots, and stir it a little on the fire; then turn it out into gla.s.ses. Set it in a warm stove; when it is dry on one side, turn the other. You may take apricots not fully ripe, and coddle them, and that will do also.
_Another._
Pare and stone your apricots; to one pound of fruit put one pound of fine sugar, and boil all together till they break. Then to five pounds of paste put three pounds of codling jelly, and make a candy of three pounds of fine sugar. Put it in all together; just scald it, and put it in little pots to dry quickly. Turn it out to dry on plates or gla.s.ses.
_Apricots, to preserve._
Stone and pare four dozen of large apricots, and cover them with three pounds of fine sugar finely beaten; put in some of the sugar as you pare them. Let them stand at least six or seven hours; then boil them on a slow fire till they are clear and tender. If any of them are clear before the rest, take them out and put them in again. When the rest are ready, let them stand closely covered with paper till next day. Then make very strong codling jelly: to two pounds of jelly add two pounds of sugar, which boil till they jelly; and while boiling make your apricots scalding hot; put the jelly to the apricots, and boil them, but not too fast. When the apricots rise in the jelly and jelly well, put them in pots or gla.s.ses, and cover closely with brandy paper.
_Another way._
Cut in half, and break in pieces, ripe apricots; put them in a preserving pan, simmer for a few minutes, and pa.s.s through a fine hair sieve: no water to be used. Add three quarters of a pound of white powdered sugar to a pound of fruit; put in the kernels; mix all together, and boil for twenty minutes: well skim when it begins to boil.
Put it into pots; when cold, cover close with paper dipped in brandy, and tie down with an outer cover of paper.
_Apricots, to preserve whole._
Gather the fruit before it is too ripe, and to one pound put three quarters of a pound of fine sugar. Stone and pare the apricots as you put them into the pan; lay sugar under and over them, and let them stand till next day. Set them on a quick fire, and let them just boil; skim well; cover them till cold, or till the following day; give them another boil; put them in pots, and strew a little sugar over them while coddling, to make them keep their colour.
_Apricots, to preserve in Jelly._
To a pound of apricots, before they are stoned and pared, weigh a pound and a quarter of the best pounded sugar. Stone and pare the fruit, and, as you pare, sprinkle some sugar under and over them. When the sugar is pretty well melted, set them on the fire and boil them. Keep out some sugar to strew on them in the boiling, which a.s.sists to clear them. Skim very clear, and turn the fruit with a ladle or a feather. When clear and tender, put them in gla.s.ses; add to the syrup a quarter of a pint of strong pippin liquor, and nearly the weight of it in sugar; let it boil awhile, and put it to the apricots. The fire should be brisk, as the sooner any sweetmeat is done the clearer and better it will be. Let the liquor run through a jelly-bag, that it may clear before you put the syrup to it, or the syrup of the apricots to boil.
_French Bances._
Take half a pint of water, a bit of lemon-peel, a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of a walnut, and a little orange-flower water; boil them gently three or four minutes; take out the lemon-peel, and add to it by degrees half a pint of flour: keep it boiling and stirring until it is a stiff paste; then take it off the fire, and put in six eggs, well beaten, leaving out three whites. Beat all very well for at least half an hour, till it is a stiff light paste; then take two pounds of hog"s-lard; put it in a stewpan; give it a boil up, and, if the bances are of a right lightness, fry them; keep stirring them all the time till they are of a proper brown. A large dish will take six or seven minutes boiling. When done, put them in a dish to drain; keep them by the fire; strew sugar over them; and, when you are going to fry them, drop them through the handle of a key.