"Pineapples you can with a good deal of sugar. Blackberries you can make
into jam and jelly, and you can also can them, but to my mind they are
pretty seedy except in jelly, and that is rather dark colored, not as
pretty as most jellies. Still, all things are good for a change.
Blueberries or huckleberries I can for tarts in winter.
"Then melons come on, and you can make watermelon sweet pickles, and
also citron preserves. Plums come, too, about this time, and those you
merely can, making them as sweet as you like. I put up greengages and
purple plums in quantities, and use them for deep tarts in winter,
saving eggs, you see, in my desserts. And I also make plum jelly and
spiced plums, if I can get them at a cheap price.
"Peaches are your best preserve. I can them in a rather rich syrup,
leaving them whole and putting in a good many kernels from their stones.
Buy those carefully, for they are usually expensive. The bits left over
I make into peach jam; it is the best thing for little tarts and to use
with whipped cream in different ways. And of course I make spiced
peaches, too. Pears I can, and I make pear conserve, out of pears, lemon
and ginger-root; that is very good with cream cheese and crackers for
lunch.
"Quinces I use in jelly, sometimes mixing apples with it, as it is apt
to be a little high flavored. I also do up a few cans of preserves, and
once in awhile I make a lovely conserve of quince, grapefruit and a few
oranges; that I do later in the fall. Grapes I make into jelly, and I
spice a lot, too. I make a marmalade with the skins and pulp and sugar,
all boiled down together; and grape conserve, made of grape pulp and
oranges and raisins, is one of my choicest things. Citron you preserve;
it looks exactly like pineapple.
"By this time crab-apples come, and I spice some of those, and make a
good deal of jelly, it is so clear and pretty. By the way, because your
cook-book will not mention the fact, remember always to put half a
lemon, cut up with its peel, into each kettle of hot jelly as you take
it off the fire; just stir it in and leave it while you dip out the
jelly. It gives a delicious flavor. And when you want geranium jelly,
drop in three of four leaves of rose geranium with the lemon at the same
time; you can bruise them a little if you like. Spiced crab-apple jelly
is nice, too; you just add a bag of whole spices as it cooks. You see
what a lot of things there are, and I am sure I could think up others if
I tried. But probably you will learn more for yourself as you keep
house, because every cook is experimenting nowadays, and you constantly
hear of new things."
"I am sure I shall love to do up fruit; it looks so pretty when it is in
the glass, and you feel so rich when you see it on your shelves."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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