WHOLE FRUIT PRESERVATION. 



789 



the thread upon the neck. It requires no clips or further apparatus to 

 keep the lid on. (Fig. 334.) 



Mr. De Luca then goes on to say : Select sound, ripe fruit, and pack 

 it as closely as can be done without bruising up to the shoulder of the 

 bottle. Pour in cold water, or rather thin cold syrup (of the strength 

 of one tablespoonful of best crystallised cane sugar to the pint), just 

 sufficient to cover the fruit. Next adjust the indiarubber ring in the 

 groove on the neck of the bottle, place the disc upon it, and lightly 

 screw down the outer ring, but not so tightly as to prevent the escape of 

 the steam. Stand the bottles in a boiling-pan, which should be filled 

 with cold water up to the shoulder. The time necessary for boiling 

 varies with the different fruits. After boiling the necessary time, 

 take the bottles out one by one, holding each in the left hand with a 

 cloth, and at once screw down the outer ring as tightly as possible. The 

 next day they should be examined by unscrewing the outer ring, and try- 

 ing whether the disc is firmly fastened down. If so, replace the ring, 

 screw down tightly, and store away, standing the bottles upright, so as to 

 keep the contents from contact with the metal disc and indiarubber band. 

 The bottles, discs, and outer rings can be used over and over again, but it 

 is better to have new indiarubber bands each time. The bottles are made 

 of various sizes and of various shapes, with wide or narrow mouth. 



The length of time to boil each kind of fruit is a matter of experi- 

 ence, but a celebrated French chef gives the following : — Tomatos, thirty 

 minutes ; Currants and Cherries and Gooseberries, twenty minutes ; 

 Plums, twenty-five ; and for Strawberries he says : Select perfectly sound 

 ones, and drop them into boiling water for a few seconds before packing 

 them gently in the bottles. Boil for fifteen minutes. 



[We should have thought from our own experience that the length of 

 time given above for the bottles to be kept in the boiling water was too 

 long. As a matter of fact, we are daily using in this month of March 

 Black Currants, Kaspberries, Plums, Damsons, Apples, and, perhaps best 

 of all. Pears, which we bottled last summer in the manner described by 

 Mr. De Luca, but which were only left fifteen minutes on the fire after 

 once the water in the boiling-pan began to boil. In passing we may say 

 that we find no Pear so good for bottling purposes as ' Pitmaston Duchess,' 

 and we use them just before they would be considered quite ripe enough 

 for dessert. For dessert, in our opinion, ' Pitmaston Duchess ' is not 

 worth eating — it is almost nasty — but bottled it is delicious. 



A more elaborate and scientific method of bottling is described in 

 detail in vol. xxv. p. 864. The reader is advised to consult this, as it also 

 contains illustrations of Messrs. Lee's admirable boiling-pan.— Ed.] 



