Green Tomato Preserves (II)

Take small green tomatoes, allow the juice and grated yellow rind of 2 lemons to every 3 pounds of the fruit. Pour over these cold water enough to cover the tomatoes. Tie an ounce of powdered ginger in a cloth for 10 pounds of tomatoes, and throw in a few peach leaves. Boil gently three-fourths of an hour. Take up the tomatoes, strain the liquid and add to it 1½ pounds of white sugar for every pound of tomatoes. Return the tomatoes and boil until they appear saturated with the syrup. In the course of a week turn the syrup from them, heat it to the scalding point and turn over the tomatoes. Tomatoes preserved in this manner appear like West Indian sweetmeats.

Plum Preserves

Take fruit and sugar, pound for pound. Scald the plums to remove the skins, or if left unpeeled prick each one in several places that the juice may exude; let it stand. Drain and put the plums in the kettle with alternate layers of sugar. Pour the juice over this and let them boil five minutes, then remove the plums with a skimmer and boil the syrup until it thickens. Return the plums and boil ten minutes longer. Put in jars and tie up closely when cold.

Wild Plum Preserves

Scald the plums in saleratus water, 1 teaspoonful to 2 gallons of plums. When the skins break slightly, pour off the water and turn the plums into a colander to drain. When cool remove the pits and weigh the fruit. Allow pound for pound of sugar. Clarify the sugar by boiling with a little water, skim and put in the fruit. When tender skim out and boil the syrup down and pour over the plums. Tie up in small jars when cold.

Preserved Grapes

Take pound for pound of grapes and white sugar. Stem the grapes and put in a preserving kettle with Sugar in alternate layers. Cook over a slow fire, stirring constantly; as the seeds rise skim them off. Stew one hour, set aside to cool and then put in jars, tying up closely. Or the grapes may be pulped and put through a colander (see directions for canning grapes), then weigh and put pound for pound of sugar and boil as above.

Preserved Watermelon Bind

Peel and slice the melon; cut in square pieces, leave a very little of the red on. Let stand over night in very weak alum water; in the morning drain and steam in a steamer until a straw will pierce them easily. Let cool; make a syrup of 1½ pounds of white sugar to 1 pound of fruit (pound for pound may be used if the preserves are not wished so nice), add enough water to keep from burning; skim. Use either 1 lemon to every 2 or 3 pounds of fruit (put in the lemon when the fruit is nearly done) or flavor with cinnamon bark, broken up and added while the preserve is boiling. Cook the rinds until clear and red.

Muskmelon Preserves

Take perfectly green muskmelons, as late in the season as possible. If preserved while the weather is very hot they are apt to ferment. Scrape the outer skin off the rind. Cut them through the middle. Remove the seeds, and cut the melon in any shape preferred. Soak them in salt and water over night; then in clear water four or five hours, changing the water several times. Then soak in alum water an hour. Rinse and put over to cook in water enough to cover, with a handful of peach leaves (if convenient) to 5 pounds of melon, and a table-spoonful of ginger tied up in a cloth. The peach leaves turn the melon green, besides adding to its flavor. Boil the melons until you can pierce them with a straw. Make a syrup of white sugar, pound for pound. Add enough water to keep from burning. Let boil and skim. Put in the fruit and the ginger, and boil it in the syrup as long as can be done without breaking the rinds. If there is not enough syrup to cover add a little water. When cold tie up in jars. In the course of a week pour off the syrup, scald and turn back over the fruit. Add sufficient essence of lemon to flavor it before turning back into the jars. A fresh lemon may be sliced into the jars when cold, 1 lemon to 2 or 3 pounds of the melon.