Jellies, Preserves
&c.
Directions for Sweetening, &c. - The sugar used for the nicest sweetmeats should be the best double refined; but if the pure, amber colored, sugar-house sirup, from the West Indies, can be gotten, it is far preferable. It never ferments. The trouble is very much lessened by having ready made sirup, in which it is only necessary to boil the fruit till clear. All delicate fruit should be done gently, and not allowed to remain over half an hour after it begins to simmer, before it is laid on dishes to cool. It must be put in the sirup again another half hour. Continue so to do till it is sufficiently transparent. The preserves are less liable to boil to pieces than if done by one continued boiling.
In preparing sugar for sweetmeats, let it be quite dissolved before you put it on the fire. If dissolved in water, allow a tumbler of water to a pound of sugar. If you boil the sugar before adding the fruit, it will be improved in clearness by passing it through a flannel bag. Skim off the brown scum, all the time it is boiling. If sweetmeats are boiled too long, they lose their flavor and become dark. If not boiled long enough, they will not keep. You may know when jelly is done, by dropping a teaspoonful cold into a glass of water. If it spreads and mixes with the water, it needs more boiling; if it sinks to the bottom in a lump, it is done enough. Raspberry jelly needs most boiling of any kind; black currant the least.
Keep your sweetmeats cool and dry, in glass, China, or stone jars. Delicate preserves should be kept in small glasses or pots that will not hold more than one or two pounds: the admission of air injures them. Glass is best.
Cover the top, after sprinkling it over with sugar, with white paper dipped in hot, clarified sugar. It is far better than rum or brandy. Over the whole confine a cover so close as to entirely exclude the air.
To Clarify Sugar for Sweetmeats. - Put your sugar into the preserving kettle, pour in as much cold water as you think may be wanted to cover the fruit to be preserved-a gill to a pound of sugar; beat the whites of eggs to a froth, allowing one egg to three pounds of sugar; mix the whites with the sugared water; set it on a slow fire, stirring the whole well together; then set it where it will boil. As soon as it boils up well, take it from the fire, let it remain for a minute, then take off the scum; set it back on the fire, and let it boil a minute, then take it off and skim it again. Repeat this operation till the sirup is clear; and put the fruit in when it is cold. The fruit should not be crowded while doing; and if there is not sufficient sirup to cover the fruit, take it out of the sirup, and put in more water, and boil it with the sirup before putting back the fruit. Directions for Making Sweetmeats. For preserving most kinds of fruit, a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is sufficient. Some kinds of fruit require more, and some will do with less, than their weight of sugar. Good brown sugar, if clarified before putting in the fruit, does very well for most kinds of fruit; and for family use, three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit does very well. The nicest white sugar needs not to be clarified. All kinds of fire-proof ware, except iron ware, will do to preserve in. Enameled kettles of iron lined with china, called preserve kettles, are best. The fruit should be turned out of the preserving kettle as soon as done, and set away. It should be looked to often, to see that it does not ferment. Whenever it does, the sirup should be turned off and scalded, and turned back while hot.