Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/89

 syrup is boiling, and boil quickly till they are saturated with syrup but not soft. Drain, put into jars, and pour the syrup over them. Keep a few months before using.

Ingredients: Any kind of fruit, three or four eggs, powdered sugar.

Mode: Choose the finest and ripest (not over ripe) specimens of the fruit you wish to do. If peaches, you can peel them, though it is not actually necessary. Pull the skin off without cutting or breaking the fruit at all. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth, and lay the fruit in this so that every part gets covered. Then take each fruit by the stalk if possible and dip it in powdered sugar, have a dredger and dredge the powdered sugar over any part not covered. Lay some sheets white paper in a baking pan, place the fruit on it and set in a cool oven to dry slowly, be sure they do not brown. When dry pile on a dish and keep in a cool place till to be used. Plums can be peeled like peaches and do very well when well done. They make a pretty bon bon for a Christmas tree and for this purpose it is best to colour the sugar.

Ingredients: Orange and lemon peels, sugar.

Mode: Cut the fruit lengthways and remove the pulp. Soak the peels in salt and water for three or four days, then boil in fresh water till soft. Place on a sieve to drain. Make a syrup of 1 lb of sugar to one quart of water and in this boil the peels again till clear. Then make a very strong syrup by mixing sugar with just sufficient water to melt it. Boil the peels in this slowly till the sugar candies. Take them out, strew powdered sugar over them, and dry either before the fire or in a cool oven.

Ingredients: For every one pound of fruit, allow ¾lb. of sugar.

Mode: Stone the cherries, lay them in a deep dish and strew part of the sugar over them for a few hours. Then boil them very fast with the rest of the sugar till the fruit is done and the syrup thick. Be sure to remove all scum as it rises. Now take them out, and lay them on tins or plates to dry, and powder them with some dry sugar. They will take about two days in the sun to dry, or be ready for putting in boxes.

Old fig boxes are handy to pack them in.

This is a very simple process, and as fig trees when they do bear, generally bear plentifully and ripen so equally that the fruit cannot all be used in the fresh state. The jam is very good, but dried figs almost everyone likes and they are particularly wholesome. For drying they should be picked a little green, that is to say, just before they are perfectly ripe. Have ready some hot lye, its strength must depend upon the character of the fig, the thick skinned variety require a stronger solution than the thin skinned and it is as well with them just to cut the skin or burst it slightly with the finger and thumb. Some recipes will tell you that it is not necessary to dip the thin skinned ones into the lye, but this is a mistake as I have proved it more than once. Dip each fruit in the hot lye, but the thin skins need not be burst, and they will only require a weak lye. About two or three seconds is long enough to immerse them, and directly after dip them in pure water to wash off the lye. Then spread them out on boards or galvanised iron, best of all wire netting to dry in the sun. They can be done in a slow oven but I have never found them so successful as when dried in the sun. Turn them every few hours and be sure to take them in before the dew begins to fall, they may take two or three days, but the quicker they are dried the better. I have always found two hot days enough. When dry dip them for an instant in hot brine not too strong, (say half a cup of coarse salt to one quart of water) boil it, but let it be off the boil when you dip the fruit. Now work them into shape for