CRYSTALLIZATION OP FRUIT IN FRANCE. 879 



sirup is very useful in the case of apricots, chestnuts, strawberries, 

 raspberries, and all tender fruit. The quantity of sugar necessary to 

 preserve each sort of fruit is not indicated, as the fruit will take only 

 the amount of sirup necessary for it; it is only necessary that it bathes 

 in the sirup. 



PREPARING PARTICULAR FRUITS. 



I present herewith instructions for preserving a number of the more 

 important kinds of fruit: 



Apricots, u-hole. Choose the white apricots, from high trees, or grown in a garden, 

 along the wall. They will be recognized in opening by the* meat forming species of 

 rays around the stone. 



It is necessary to take them some days before their maturity, when they begin to 

 turn yellow, and the stone is easily detached, and they are firm. 



Make a little incision at the head with the point of a knife. Hold the fruit in the 

 left hand with the thumb and fore-finger, then pushing the knife at the place of the 

 stem, the stone goes out at the top or head. Proportion the apricots in water slightly 

 alumed, or acidulated with lemon juice. Prick them in the green parts which are not 

 ripe enough, then whiten them on a slow fire, stir them from time to time to aid the 

 ripest to rise to the surface ; try them on the skimmer with the fingers or a pin, and 

 put them in fresh water as soon as whitened. When they have become cooled, after, 

 having changed the water several times; put them in sugar warmed to 20, and make 

 them simmer or slightly boil, if they are not too ripe. The next day put them in su- 

 gar at 22, boil them, covered, if the fruit is firm, or simmer them if it is tender; 

 continue thus each day for five or six days or processes, increasing 2 each time until 

 30, then let them remain for fifteen days, as heretofore indicated. 



When the fruits are a little large, turn them with a thin and suitable knife that the 

 sides may correspond ; with a toothed knife the sides are better and neater. Cherries, 

 oranges, nuts, pears, etc., are turned in the same manner. 



Stuffed apricots. Take whole, preserved apricots, and introduce in each plum or 

 other small preserved fruit separated from the stone, which replace by lemon or 

 lime. 



They are equally stuffed with the marmalade of apricots, pine-apples, strawberries, 

 apple-jelly, currants, cherries, raspberries, etc., and a peeled almond is put in the 

 middle. 



Apricots in quarters. Choose apricots already yellow, without being ripe, firm, and 

 with the stone easily detached. Peel them, or turn them, and prick them lightly 

 with a pin, and immediately throw them in fresh fountain water lightly alumed. 

 Whiten them and put them in the sirup like the whole ones. When they are pre- 

 served, drain them, put them in a stewing dish with sirup at 20, and add the juice 

 of a fine orange. The apricots are iced and candied, drained, and placed with pre- 

 served fruits in boxes. Increase the sirup at each process, so that the fruit is bathed 

 in it. 



Pine-apples. Choose the pine-apples before they are entirely ripe, remove with care 

 the first pellicle, leaving half of the middle of the crown, prick them with a large 

 n'- die to the heart in several places. Whiten and preserve them like the apricot. 



flurries. Take fine cherries with considerable acidity, takeoff the steins, push out 

 tin- stoiws with a quill, and place them reversed side by side on a strainer. After- 

 wards put them in an earthen dish in layers, with equal parts of powdered sugar, 

 until the next day. It is n> >- .iry to decant them several times to dissolve the 

 sugar. Heat, them slowly and proceed as with simp. 



(jHiii'-.t* in quarter*. Choose quinces of a Hue yellow, and well ripe and sound. Take 

 oft' the down with a linen cloth, prick them to the heart with a large needle, put them 

 in a proportional quantity of alumed water, place them afterwards over a quick 



