325. Pumpkin Chips

Take what quantity you choose of a good sweet pumpkin, (the butter pumpkin makes the nicest sweetmeats.) Halve the pumpkin, take out the seeds, and cut it into chips of the size of a dollar. For each pound of the pumpkin to be preserved, allow a pound of fine white sugar, and a gill of lemon-juice. Put the chips in a deep dish, and sprinkle on each layer a layer of the sugar. Turn the lemon-juice over the whole. Let it remain a day - then boil the whole together, with half a pint of water to three pounds of the pumpkin, a table-spoonful of powdered ginger, tied up in bags, and the peel of the lemons, cut into small pieces. When the pumpkin becomes tender, turn the whole into a preserve pot. In the course of a week, turn the syrup from the pumpkin, boil it to a rich syrup, and turn it back hot.

326. 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 in a china jar, and in the course of a week turn the syrup from them, scald it, and turn it over them hot.

327. Strawberries

Procure Chili or field strawberries, and hull them. Take equal quantities of berries, and powdered white sugar - put a layer of each in a preserving pan, having a layer of strawberries at the bottom. Let them remain an hour, then put in a gill of cold water, to prevent their burning to the bottom of the pan. Set them on a very moderate fire - when the juice runs freely, increase the fire, until they boil briskly. Let them boil half an hour, then turn them into a dish - when lukewarm, put them in wide-mouthed bottles, or small glass jars, cork and seal them tight, and keep them in dry sand.

328. Raspberry And Blackberry Jam

For each pound of berries, allow a pound of sugar. Put a layer of each alternately in a preserving dish. Let them remain half an hour - then boil them slowly, stirring them frequently, to keep them from burning. When they have boiled half an hour, take a little up in a cup, and set it in a dish of cold water - if it appears of the consistency of thick jelly, take the whole from the fire - if not, boil it till it becomes so.

329. Strawberry, Raspberry, And Blackberry Jelly

Jellies of these fruits are all made in the following manner: Take the berries when ripe, and in their prime, mash them, and let them drain through a flannel bag, without squeezing it. To each pint of juice, put a pound of white sugar, and the beaten white of an egg to three pounds of the sugar. Set it on the fire - when it boils up well, take it from the fire, and skim it clear. Set it back on the fire - if any more scum rises, take it from the fire, and skim it off. Boil it till it becomes a jelly, which is ascertained by taking a little of it up into a tumbler of cold water. If it falls to the bottom in a solid mass, it is sufficiently boiled. 330. Cranberry, Grape, and Currant Jelly.

They are all made in the same manner. Take the fruit in its prime, wash and drain it till nearly dry, then put it in an earthen jar, or pot, and set the pot in a kettle of hot water. Set the kettle where the water will boil, taking care that none of it gets into the jar. When the fruit breaks, turn it into a flannel bag, and let it drain slowly through, into a deep dish, without squeezing. When the juice has all passed through the bag, put to each pint of it a pound and a half of white sugar. Put to each quart of the syrup the beaten white of an egg. Set the syrup where it will boil gently - as fast as any scum rises, take the syrup from the fire, and skim it clear. When the jelly has boiled fifteen or twenty minutes, try a little of it in a tumbler of cold water - if it sinks to the bottom of the tumbler in a solid lump, it is sufficiently boiled. Jellies are improved by being put in the sun for several days - care must be taken that the dew does not fall on them.