TO PRESERVE CHERRIES

Take large ripe morella cherries; weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Stone the cherries, (opening them with a sharp quill,) and save the juice that comes from them in the process. As you stone them, throw them into a large pan or tureen, and strew about half the sugar over them, and let them lie in it an hour or two after they are all stoned. Then put them into a preserving kettle with the remainder of the sugar, and boil and skim them till the fruit is clear and the syrup thick.

CITRON MELON SLICES.--Take some fine citron melons; pare, core, and cut them into long broad slices. Weigh them, and to every six pounds of melon allow six pounds of fine loaf-sugar; and the juice and yellow rind (pared off very thin) of four lemons; also, half a pound of race (root) ginger. Put the slices of melon into a preserving-kettle; cover them with strong alum water, and boil them half an hour, or longer, till they are quite clear and tender. Then drain them, lay them in a broad vessel of cold water, cover them and let them stand all night. Next morning, tie up the race ginger in a piece of thin muslin, and boil it in three pints of clear spring or pump water, till the water is highly flavoured. Having broken up the sugar, put it into a clean preserving-kettle, and pour the ginger water over it. When the sugar is all melted, set it over the fire, add the lemon parings, and boil and skim it, till no more scum rises. Then take out the lemon peel, stir in the juice, and put in the citron slices. Boil them in the syrup till they are transparent and soft, but not till they break. When done, put the citron slices and syrup into a large tureen, set it in a dry, cool, dark place, and leave it uncovered for two or three days. Then put the slices carefully into wide-mouthed glass jars, and gently pour in the syrup. Lay inside the top of each jar a double white tissue paper cut exactly to fit, and close the jars carefully with corks and cement. This will be found a delicious sweetmeat.

CHERRY JELLY.--Take fine juicy red cherries, and stone them. Save half the stones, crack them, and extract the kernels. Put the cherries and the kernels into a preserving kettle over a slow fire, and let them boil gently in their juice for half an hour. Then transfer them to a jelly-bag, and squeeze out the juice. Measure it, and to each pint allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the juice, and then boil and skim it for twenty or thirty minutes. Put it up in tumblers covered with tissue paper.

CHERRY JAM.--To each pound of cherries allow three quarters of a pound of the best white sugar. Stone them, and as you do so throw the sugar gradually into the pan with them. Cover them and let them set all night. Next day, boil them slowly till the cherries and sugar form a thick smooth mass. Put it up in queen's-ware jars.

TO DRY CHERRIES.--Choose the finest and largest red cherries for this purpose. Stone them, and spread them on large dishes in the sun, till they become quite dry, taking them in as soon as the sun is off, or if the sky becomes cloudy. Put them up in stone jars, strewing among them some of the best brown sugar.

The common practice of drying cherries with the stones in, (to save trouble,) renders them so inconvenient to eat, that they are of little use, when done in that manner.

With the stones extracted, dried cherries will be found very good for common pies.

BARBERRY JELLY.--Take ripe barberries, and having stripped them from the stalks, mash them, and boil them in their juice for a quarter of an hour. Then squeeze them through a bag; allow to each pint of juice, a pound of loaf-sugar; and having melted the sugar in the juice, boil them together twenty or twenty-five minutes, skimming carefully. Put it up in tumblers with tissue paper.

FROSTED FRUIT.--Take large ripe cherries, plums, apricots, or grapes, and cut off half the stalk. Have ready in one dish some beaten white of egg, and in another some fine loaf-sugar, powdered and sifted. Dip the fruit first into the white of egg, and then roll it one by one in the powdered sugar. Lay a sheet of white paper on the bottom of a reversed sieve, set it on a stove or in some other warm place, and spread the fruit on the paper till the icing is hardened.

PEACH LEATHER.--To six pounds of ripe peaches, (pared and quartered,) allow three pounds of the best brown sugar. Mix them together, and put them into a preserving kettle, with barely water enough to keep them from burning. Pound and mash them a while with a wooden beetle. Then boil and skim them for three hours or more, stirring them nearly all the time. When done, spread them thinly on large dishes, and set them in the sun for three or four days. Finish the drying by loosening the peach leather on the dishes, and setting them in the oven after the bread is taken out, letting them remain till the oven is cold. Roll up the peach leather and put it away in a box.

Apple leather may be made in the same manner.

RHUBARB JAM,--Peel the rhubarb stalks and cut them into small square pieces. Then weigh them, and to each pound allow three quarters of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Put the sugar and the rhubarb into a large, deep, white pan, in alternate layers, the top layer to be of sugar--cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, put it into a preserving kettle, and boil it slowly till the whole is dissolved into a thick mass, stirring it frequently, and skimming it before every stirring. Put it warm into glass jars, and tie it up with brandy paper.