284 



CURING AND STORING. 



if more syrup is required. Juicy fruits 

 will diminish the syrup much less than 

 others. When the bottles are cold, put 

 them away in a cool, dry, and dark place. 

 Do not tamper with the covers in any 

 way. The bottles should be inspected 

 every day for a week or so, in order to 

 discover if any are imperfect. If fermen- 

 tation has commenced, bubbles will be 

 seen in the syrup, and the covers will be 

 loosened. If taken at once, the contents 

 may be saved by thoroughly reheating. 

 Another way is to prepare a syrup and 

 allow it to cool. Place the fruit in the 

 bottles, cover with the syrup and then set 

 the bottles nearly up to their rims in a 

 boiler of cold water. Some wooden slats 

 should be placed at the bottom of the 

 boiler to keep the bottles from contact 

 with it. The water in the boiler is then 

 heated and kept boiling until the fruit in 

 the bottles is thoroughly heated through, 

 when the covers are put on, and the 

 bottles allowed to cool. It is claimed 

 that the flavor of the fruit is better 

 preserved in this way than by the other. 



What May Be Preserved. — All the 

 fruits that are used in their fresh state or 

 for pies, etc., and Rhubarb, or Pie-plant, 

 and tomatoes. Green peas, and corn, 

 cannot be readily preserved in families, 

 as they require special apparatus. Straw- 

 berries — hard-fleshed sour varieties, such 

 as the Wilson, are better than the more 

 delicate kinds. 



Currants need more sugar than the 

 foregoing. Blackberries and huckleberries 

 are both very satisfactorily preserved, 

 and make capital pies. Cherries and 

 plums need only picking over. Peaches 

 need peeling and quartering. The skin 

 may be removed from ripe peaches by 

 scalding them in water or weak lye for a 

 few seconds, and then transferring them to 

 cold water. Some obtain a strong peach 

 flavor by boiling a few peach meats in 

 the syrup. We have had peaches keep 

 three years, and were then better than 

 those sold at the stores. Pears are pared 

 and halved, or quartered, and the core 

 removed. The best, high-flavored and 

 melting varieties only should be used. 

 Coarse baking pears are unsatisfactory. 

 Apples — very few put up these. Try 

 some high-flavored ones, and you will be 

 pleased with them. Quinces — there is 

 a great contrast between quinces pre- 



served in this way and those done up in 

 the old way of pound for pound. They 

 do not become hard, and they remain of 

 a fine light color. Tomatoes require 

 cooking longer than the fruits proper. 

 Any intelligent person who understands 

 the principle upon which fruit is preserved 

 in this way, will soon find the mechanical 

 part easy of execution and the result^ 

 satisfactory. 



FRUIT, Dried, to Protect from Worms. 

 It is said that dried fruit put away with a 

 little bark sassafras (say a large handful 

 to the bushel) will save for years, unmo- 

 lested by those troublesome little insects, 

 which so often destroy hundreds of 

 bushels in a single season. The remedy 

 is cheap and simple, but we venture to 

 say a good one. 



FRUIT, Canned, Keeping.— The pres- 

 ervation of canned fruits depends very 

 much on the place where they are stored. 

 If put in a cellar, unless it is exception- 

 ally dry, they will gather mold and lose 

 all the fine, fresh flavor it is so desirable 

 to retain. If kept in too warm a spot, 

 they will ferment and burst the cans, and 

 in that case, even if the fruit has not 

 been spilled over the shelves, it will have 

 been made so sour that no re-scalding, 

 etc., can make it good. Severe cold 

 does not injure it unless the weather is 

 below zero. 



One stinging cold morning we entered 

 our milk-room to find long rows of grena- 

 diers in red coats, standing triumphantly 

 amid the fragments of numerous defeated 

 bottles. The tomatoes being preserved 

 entirely without sugar or spice, were 

 frozen to a solid red ice, but the fruits 

 put up with a small quantity of sugar 

 were only slightly frozen, and as we im- 

 mediately immersed the jars in cold 

 water until the frost was extracted, they 

 did not burst. The tomatoes were saved 

 by an immediate re-bottling. 



A doubled-walled closet in a fireless 

 room on the second floor is one of the 

 best places for storing canned fruits in 

 the winter ; and in summer a cool milk- 

 room will be found safe. 



GOOSEBERRIES, Dried. — To seven 

 pounds of red gooseberries add a pound 

 and a half of powdered sugar, which 

 must be stewed over them in the preserv- 

 ing-pan ; let them remain at a good heat 

 over a slow fire till they begin to break ; 



