Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/464

 424 PRESERVES, JELLIES, ETC.

solid cake, which can be easily removed when the jelly is used, and saved to use over again another year. It is perfectly harmless and tasteless.

Large glass tumblers are the best for keeping jellies, much better than large vessels, for by being opened frequently they soon spoil ; a paper should be cut to fit and placed over the jelly; then put on the lid or cover, with thick paper rubbed over on the inside with the white of an egg.

There cannot be too much care taken in selecting fruit for jellies, for if the fruit is over ripe, any amount of time in boiling will never make it jelly there is where so many fail in making good jelly; and another important matter is overlooked that of carefully skimming off the juice after it begins to boil and a scum rises from the bottom to the top ; the juice should not be stirred, but the scum carefully taken off; if allowed to boil under, the jelly will not be clear.

When either preserves or canned fruits show any indications of fermentation, they should be immediately re-boiled with more sugar, to save them. It is much better to be generous with the sugar at first than to have any losses afterwards. Keep all preserves in a cool, dry

closet.

PRESERVED CHERRIES.

TAKE large, ripe Morello cherries ; weigh them and to each pound allow a pound of loaf sugar. Stone the cherries (opening them with a sharp quill) and save the juice that comes from them in the process. As you stone them, throw them into a large pan or tureen and strew about half the sugar over them and let them lie in it an hour or two after they are all stoned. Then put them into a preserving kettle with the remainder of the sugar and boil and skim them till the fruit is clear and the syrup thick.

PRESERVED CRANBERRIES.

THE cranberries must be large and ripe. Wash them and to six quarts of cranberries allow nine pounds of the best loaf sugar. Take three quarts of the cranberries and put them into a stewpan with a pint and a half of water. Cover the pan and boil or stew them till they are all to pieces. Then squeeze the juice through a jelly bag. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, pour the cranberry juice over it and let it stand until it is all melted, stirring it up frequently. Then place the kettle over the fire and put in the remaining three quarts of whole

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