Iffi FKUITS AND HOW TO USE THEM. 



Small fruits ought to be picked in the morning while it 

 is still fresh and cool, and the sooner they are cooked and 

 in jars the better. A careful picking over and rejection 

 of any that are unripe or inferior is presupposed. lu 

 preparing large fruits use a silver knife, or if that is incon- 

 venient, drop the cut fruit into cold water to prevent dis- 

 coloration. 



Stew the fruit in a porcelain or granite kettle, using as 

 little water as possible, and cook it very slowly. Hard 

 boiling dissipates the delicate flavor, rapid boiling reduces 

 it to a shapeless mass, yet boil it must or it will be sure 

 to ferment. 



Where time will allow it is a good plan to pack the fruit 

 in the jars in which it is to be sealed before it is cooked. 

 Pill them to the top and set in a large kettle with wooden 

 slats nailed across each other to make a flat bottom. Cot- 

 ton cloth or muffin rings answer the same purpose, but 

 the false bottom is safer and more convenient. Over the 

 cans fold a clean towel and let them steam until the fruit 

 is soft. If it is to be sealed without sugar till up each 

 can from one heated for that purpose, take it out with a 

 cloth to a table adjacent, and screw on the top wtich must 

 be kept hot m a pan of hot water. In fact everything about 

 the fruit must be kept hot. If there are bubbles of air in 

 the jar, run dovm a silver spoon and let th em escape. Fill to 

 the very brim, screw the top on to the utmost extent, and 

 invert the jar on a tray or table in a cooler place. If there 

 is leakage it can be detected at once. 



The length of time required for cooking is as follows : 



Cherries and huckleberries, five minutes. AU kinds of 

 berries, grapes, and currants, six to eight minutes. Sliced 

 or halved peaches and. gooseberries, ten minutes. Halved 

 pears, quince, sliced pine-apple, whole peaches, twenty min- 



