The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight OpenedDigby, Kenelm
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The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened
Digby, Kenelm
Cooking -- Early works to 1800; Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665; Liquors; Wine and wine making -- Early works to 1800
Take four pound of the best Kentish Cherries, before they be stoned, to one
pound of pure loaf Sugar, which beat into small Powder: stone the Cherries,
and put them into your preserving pan over a gentle fire, that they may not
boil, but resolve much into Liquor. Take away with the spoon much of the
thin Liquor, (for else the Marmulate will be Glewy) leaving the Cherries
moist enough, but not swimming in clear Liquor. Then put to them half your
Sugar, and boil it up quick, and scum away the froth that riseth. When that
is well Incorporated and clear, strew in a little more of the Sugar; and
continue doing so by little and little, till you have put in all your
Sugar; which course will make the colour the finer. When they are boiled
enough, take them off, and bruise them with the back of a spoon; and when
they are cold, put them up in pots.
You may do the same with Morello Cherries; which will have a quicker-tast,
and have a fine, pure, shining, dark colour.
Both sorts will keep well all the year.
MARMULATE OF CHERRIES WITH JUYCE OF RASPES AND CURRANTS
Mingle juyce of Raspes and red Currants with the stoned Cherries, and boil
this mixture into Marmulate, with a quarter, or at most, a third part of
Sugar. The juyces must be so much as to make Gelly of them to mingle
handsomely with the Cherries, to appear among and between them.
Madam Plancy (who maketh this sweet-meat for the Queen) useth this
proportion. Take three pounds of Cherries stoned; half a pound of clear
juyce of raspes, and one pound of the juyce of red currants, and one pound
of fine Sugar. Put them all together into the preserving pan; boil them
with a quick fire, especially at the first, skimming them all the while, as
any scum riseth. When you find them of a fit consistence, with a fine clear
gelly, mingled with the Cherries, take the preserving pan from the fire,
and braise the Cherries with the back of your preserving spoon; and when
they are of a fit temper of coolness, pot them up.
Peradventure, to keep all the year, there may be requisite a little more
Sugar.
TO MAKE AN EXCELLENT SYRUP OF APPLES
Slice a dozen or twenty Pippins into thin slices, and lay them in a deep
dish, _stratum super stratum,_ with pure double refined Sugar in powder.
Put two or three spoonfuls of water to them, and cover them close with
another dish, luting their joyning that nothing may expire. Then set them
into an oven. And when you take out the dish, you will have an excellent
Syrup, and the remaining substance of the Apples will be insipid.
You may proceed with Damsens, or other plumms, in the same manner, and you
will have excellent stewed Damsens, (as fair as preserved ones) swimming in
a very fine Syrup.
SWEET-MEATS OF MY LADY WINDEBANKS
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