Transparent Preserves

(Apple and Lemon.)

Use fair, sweet, firm apples. Pare them, and cut them across the core in slices a quarter of an inch thick. Remove seeds, but not the core. Weigh them. Boil very gently in a little water, till tender; then lift carefully on to platters.

Use half the number of lemons that you have of apples. Weigh them. Cut them across the core like the apples. Remove the seeds and lay the slices on platters. Take the weight of apples and lemons in sugar.

Sprinkle half of it over the lemon slices; let it stand several hours, until enough liquid has formed to cook them in. Drain it off. Put it in a porcelain kettle with the rest of the sugar. "When it boils, drop in the lemon and apple slices, and boil gently until the fruit is clear.

Those who dislike the taste of lemon peel, can use the lemon juice only.

Preserved Tomatoes

(Small, round, yellow Ones.)

Scald and peel ripe tomatoes. To each pound put one pound of sugar. Scatter it over the fruit and let it stand over night. In the morning, drain off the syrup which will have formed, and boil it about ten minutes, removing the scum. Put in then the tomatoes, and boil gently fifteen minutes. (Tomatoes lose their shape and become mushy if boiled fast.) Then skim them out, and spread on platters to cool. Boil the syrup till it thickens (about fifteen minutes longer). Put the fruit in jars with a few slices of lemon in each jar, and pour the syrup over them.

Seal when cold.

Any fruit, may be preserved in this way.

Green Tomato Preserves

This is a good way to use green tomatoes left on the vines late in the season, after making piccalily. Take inside slices of smooth green tomatoes. To eight pounds of fruit allow four pounds of sugar. Make like "Preserved Tomatoes" (yellow); but add to the syrup, after taking out the fruit, six lemons (sliced) to every eight pounds.

Preserved Pine-Apple

Remove skin and eyes. Grate the pine-apple, or prepare thus: holding the pine-apple in the left hand, with a silver fork tear out small bits, beginning at the stem end. Throw away the core which is left. To each pound of pine-apple thus prepared allow three fourths of a pound of sugar. Put the sugar on the fire with one cupful of cold water to every two pounds of sugar. Heat slowly and let it just begin to boil before adding the fruit, which should be made very hot first by being set in a sauce-pan put into boiling water at the back of the stove. (Heating the fruit in this way before adding to the syrup prevents that hardness which is often so disagreeable in preserved pine-apple.) Boil all together slowly for fifteen minutes. Then put into jars, and seal when cold.

Four medium-sized pine-apples will fill two quart-jars and one pint.

Another (without boiling). Take pine-apples which are fully ripe, yet not soft. Pare them and pick out the eyes. Cut into round slices half an inch thick. Allow one and one quarter pounds of sugar to one pound of fruit thus prepared. Put layers of fruit and sugar in a jar, putting in the sugar thickly, or some will be left over after the fruit is all in. Seal, and keep in a cold place. This keeps perfectly, is quickly prepared without the heat of a fire, and is as good as freshly sugared pine-apple a year afterwards.