1576. - Tait Pine-Apple

To fourteen pounds of grated pineapple add half an ounce of grated alum, and mix thoroughly. Boil seven pounds white sugar in as little water as possible, skimming it until perfectly clear. Pour the boiling sugar over the fruit, and put it into empty champagne bottles; stand the bottles in boiling water till the water begins to cool; then cork and seal them closely.

1577. - Crab-Apples

Make a syrup, allowing the same weight of sugar as apples. Let it cool, then put in the apples, a few at once, so that they will not crowd, and break to pieces. Boil them till they begin to break, then take them out of the kettle. Boil the syrup in the course of three or four days, and turn it while hot upon the apples. This continue to do at intervals of two or three days, till the apples appear to be thoroughly preserved.

1578. - General Directions For Making Sweetmeats And Jellies

In preparing sugar for sweetmeats, let it be entirely dissolved before you put it on the fire. If you dissolve it in water, allow about half a pint of water to a pound of sugar. If you boil the sugar before you add the fruit to it, it will be improved in clearness by passing it through a flannel bag. Skim off the brown scum all the time it is boiling. If sweetmeats are boiled too long, they lose their flavor and become of a dark color. If boiled too short a time they will not keep well. You may ascertain when jelly is done, by dropping a small spoonful into a glass of water. If it spreads and mixes with the water, it requires more boiling. If it sinks in a lump to the bottom, it is sufficiently done. This trial must be made after the jelly is cold. Raspberry jelly requires more boiling than any other sort. Black currant jelly less. Keep your sweetmeats in glass jars.

1581. - Brandy Peaches

To each pound of peaches take three-quarters of a pound of white sugar. Make a syrup, in half of which boil the fruit, having first taken off the skin by scalding them in hot lye, which is made by dissolving as much salsoda in boiling water as will make it strong enough to bear an egg.

The peaches are to be taken out of the lye as soon as the skin begins to crack, and thrown into cold water, when they can be rubbed quite clean with a coarse cloth. Rinse them in fresh water, wrap them in a cloth to drain, and keep them covered, as on this depends their color.

When the boiled peaches are cold, add to the remainder of the syrup the same quantity of brandy. Put away the peaches in it, and cover tightly.

1582. - Green Gages

Allow equal weights of sugar and gages. Make a syrup of white sugar, and just water enough to cover the plums. Boil the plums slowly in the syrup ten minutes - turn them into a dish, and let them remain four or five days, then boil them again, till the syrup appears to have entered the plums. Put them into a china jar, and in the course of a week turn the syrup from them, scald it, and turn it over them hot.

1584. - Goosebeeries

The tops and tails being removed from the gooseberries, allow an equal quantity of finely pounded loaf-sugar, and put a layer of each alternately into a large deep jar; pour into it as much dripped currant-juice, either red or white, as will dissolve the sugar, adding its weight in sugar; the following day put all into a preserving-pan and boil it.

Gooseberry Jam

Take what quantity you please of red, rough, ripe gooseberries; take half their quantity of lump sugar; break them well, and boil them together for half an hour or more, if necessary. Put it into pots and cover with paper.