Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher

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СКАЧАТЬ the preserves do not look so well.

      Blackberry Jam.—Allow three quarters of a pound of brown sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an hour, then add the sugar and boil all together ten minutes.

      To preserve Currants to eat with Meat.—Strip them from the stem. Boil them an hour, and then to a pound of the fruit add a pound of brown sugar. Boil all together fifteen or twenty minutes.

      Cherries.—Take out the stones. To a pound of fruit allow a pound of sugar. Put a layer of fruit on the bottom of the preserving-kettle, then a layer of sugar, and continue thus till all are put in. Boil till clear. Put them in bottles hot and seal them. Keep them in dry sand.

      Currants.—Strip them from the stems. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of currants. Boil them together ten minutes. Take them from the sirup and let the sirup boil twenty minutes, and pour it on the fruit. Put them in small jars or tumblers, and let them stand in the sun a few days.

      Raspberry Jam, No. 1.—Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Press them with a spoon in an earthen dish. Add the sugar, and boil all together fifteen minutes.

      Raspberry Jam, No. 2.—Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an hour, or till the seeds are soft. Strain one quarter of the fruit, and throw away the seeds. Add the sugar, and boil the whole ten minutes. A little currant-juice gives it a pleasant flavor, and when that is used, an equal quantity of sugar must be added.

      Currant Jelly.—Pick over the currants with care. Put them in a stone jar, and set it into a kettle of boiling water. Let it boil till the fruit is very soft. Strain it through a sieve. Then run the juice through a jelly-bag. Put a pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and boil it together five minutes. Set it in the sun a few days. If it stops boiling, it is less likely to turn to jelly.

      Quince Marmalade.—Rub the quinces with a cloth, cut them in quarters. Put them on the fire with a little water, and stew them till they are sufficiently tender to rub them through a sieve. When strained, put a pound of sugar to a pound of the pulp. Set it on the fire, and let it cook slowly. To ascertain when it is done, take out a little and let it get cold, and if it cuts smoothly, it is done.

      Crab-apple marmalade is made in the same way.

      Crab-apple jelly is made like quince jelly.

      Most other fruits are preserved so much like the preceding that it is needless to give any more particular directions than to say that a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the general rule for all preserves that are to be kept through warm weather and a long time.

      Preserved Water-melon Rinds.—This a fine article to keep well without trouble for a long time. Peel the melon, and boil it in just enough water to cover it till it is soft, trying with a fork. (If you wish it green, put green vine-leaves above and below each layer, and scatter powdered alum, less than half a tea-spoonful to each pound.)

      Allow a pound of sugar to each pound of rind, and clarify it as directed previously.

      Simmer the rinds two hours in this sirup, and flavor it with lemon-peel grated and tied in a bag. Then put the melon in a tureen, and boil the sirup till it looks thick, and pour it over. Next day, give the sirup another boiling, and put the juice of one lemon to each quart of sirup. Take care not to make it bitter by too much of the peel.

      Citrons are preserved in the same manner. Both these keep through hot weather with very little care in sealing and keeping.

      Preserved Pumpkin.—Cut a thick yellow pumpkin, peeled, into strips two inches wide and five or six long.

      Take a pound of white sugar for each pound of fruit, and scatter it over the fruit, and pour on two wine-glasses of lemon-juice for each pound of pumpkin.

      Next day, put the parings of one or two lemons with the fruit and sugar, and boil the whole three quarters of an hour, or long enough to make it tender and clear without breaking. Lay the pumpkin to cool, strain the sirup, and then pour it on to the pumpkin.

      If there is too much lemon-peel, it will be bitter.

CHAPTER XVIII.

       DESSERTS AND EVENING PARTIES.

       Table of Contents

      Ice-Cream.—One quart of milk. One and a half table-spoonfuls of arrow-root. The grated peel of two lemons. One quart of thick cream.

      Wet the arrow-root with a little cold milk, and add it to the quart of milk when boiling hot; sweeten it very sweet with white sugar, put in the grated lemon-peel, boil the whole, and strain it into the quart of cream. When partly frozen, add the juice of the two lemons. Twice this quantity is enough for thirty-five persons. Find the quantity of sugar that suits you by measure, and then you can use this every time, without tasting. Some add whites of eggs; others think it just as good without. It must be made very sweet, as it loses much by freezing.

      If you have no apparatus for freezing, (which is almost indispensable), put the cream into a tin pail with a very tight cover, mix equal quantities of snow and blown salt, (not the coarse salt), or of pounded ice and salt, in a tub, and put it as high as the pail, or freezer; turn the pail or freezer half round and back again with one hand, for half an hour, or longer, if you want it very nice. Three quarters of an hour steadily will make it good enough. While doing this, stop four or five times, and mix the frozen part with the rest, the last time very thoroughly, and then the lemon-juice must be put in. Then cover the freezer tight with snow and salt till it is wanted. The mixture must be perfectly cool before being put in the freezer. Renew the snow and salt while shaking, so as to have it kept tight to the sides of the freezer. A hole in the tub holding the freezing mixture, to let off the water, is a great advantage. In a tin pail it would take much longer to freeze than in the freezer, probably nearly twice as long. A long stick, like a coffee-stick, should be used in scraping the ice from the sides. Iron spoons will be affected by the lemon-juice, and give a bad taste.

      In taking it out for use, first wipe off every particle of the freezing mixture dry, then with a knife loosen the sides, then invert the freezer upon the dish in which the ice is to be served, and apply two towels wrung out of hot water to the bottom part, and the whole will slide out in the shape of a cylinder. Freezers are now sold quite cheap, and such as freeze in a short time.

      Strawberry Ice-Cream.—Rub a pint of ripe strawberries through a sieve, add a pint of cream, and four ounces of powdered sugar, and freeze it. Other fruits may be used thus.

      Ice-Cream without Cream.—A vanilla bean or a lemon rind is first boiled in a quart of milk. Take out the bean or peel, and add the yelks of four eggs, beaten well. Heat it scalding hot, but do not boil it, stirring in white sugar till very sweet. When cold, freeze it.

      Fruit Ice-Cream.—Make rich boiled custard, and mash into it the soft ripe fruit, or the grated or cooked hard fruit, or grated pine-apples. Rub all through a sieve, sweeten it very sweet, and freeze it. Quince, apple, pear, peach, strawberry, and raspberry are all very good for this purpose.

      A Cream for stewed Fruit.—Boil two or three peach leaves, or a vanilla bean, in a quart of cream, or milk, till flavored. Strain and sweeten it, mix it with the yelks of four eggs, well beaten; then, while heating it, add the whites cut to a froth. When it СКАЧАТЬ