Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1278

1138 brandy. Turn into pots, cover with bladder, and store in a dry, cool place. Unless the brandy is added the jam will not keep.

Time.—From 50 to 60 minutes. Average cost [sic], about 5d. per lb.

2517.—CHERRIES DRIED.

Cherries may be put into a slow oven and thoroughly dried before they begin to change colour. They should then be taken out of the oven, tied in bunches, and stored away in a dry place. In the winter they may be cooked with sugar for dessert, the same as Normandy pippins. Particular care must be taken that the oven be not too hot. Another method of drying cherries is to stone them and put them into a preserving-pan, with plenty of loaf sugar strewed among them. They should be simmered till the fruit shrivels, then they should be strained from the juice. The cherries should then be placed in an oven cool enough to dry without baking them. About 5 ozs. of sugar will be required for 1 lb. of cherries, and the same syrup may be used again to do another quantity of fruit.

2518.—CHERRY JAM.

Ingredients.—Sound, ripe cooking cherries, an equal quantity of preserving sugar; to each lb. of fruit allow ¼ of a pint of red-currant juice or water, or the two mixed in any proportions that may be convenient.

Method.—Remove the stones, keeping the cherries as whole as possible, and preserve the kernels. Put the red currant juice or water into a preserving-pan with the sugar, and boil to a syrup. Add the cherries and kernels, and simmer gently until the cherries are tender, but not broken, and the juice jellies almost immediately when a little is poured on a cold plate. Pour into jars, cover with paper dipped in brandy, and stretch over the top tissue paper brushed over with white of egg. Store in a cool, dry place.

Time.— About 1 hour. Average Cost, about 8d. per lb.

2519.—CHERRIES, TO PRESERVE.

Ingredients.— Sound, ripe cooking cherries. To each lb. allow a ½ lb. of preserving sugar and of a ¼ pint of water.

Method.—Remove the stones carefully, keeping the fruit as whole as possible. Boil the sugar and water to a syrup, add the cherries, simmer them gently for 15 minutes, then turn both fruit and syrup into a large basin, and put aside until the following day. Strain the syrup into a preserving-pan; to each pint add from 4 to 6 ozs. of sugar, according to taste, bring to boiling point, skim well, then put in the fruit and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Pour into jars, cover at once with paper dipped in brandy, stretch tissue paper brushed over with