American Cookery: The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables

and keep them for use. _To keep Damsons_. Take damsons when they are first ripe, pick them off carefully, wipe them clean, put them into snuff bottles, stop them up tight so that no air can get to them, nor water; put nothing into the bottles but plumbs, put the bottles into cold water, hang them over the fire, let them heat slowly, let the water boil slowly for half an hour, when the water is cold take out the bottles, set the bottles into a cold place, they will keep twelve months if the bottles are stopped tight, so as no air nor water can get to them. They will not keep long after the bottles are opened; the plumbs must be hard. _Currant Jelly_. Having stripped the currants from the stalks, put them in a stone jar, stop it close, set it in a kettle of boiling water, halfway the jar, let it boil half an hour, take it out and strain the juice through a coarse hair sieve, to a pint of juice put a pound of sugar, set it over a fine quick fire in a preserving pan, or a bell-metal skillet, keep stirring it all the time till the sugar be melted, then skim the skum off as fast as it rises. When the jelly is very clear and fine, pour it into earthern or china cups, when cold, cut white papers just the bigness of the top of the pot, and lay on the jelly, dip those papers in brandy, then cover the top of the pot and prick it full of holes, set it in a dry place; you may put some into glasses for present use. _To dry Peaches_. Take the fairest and ripest peaches, pare them into fair water; take their weight in double refined sugar; of one half make a very thin sirrup; then put in your peaches, boiling them till they look clear, then split and stone them, boil them till they are very tender, lay them a draining, take the other half of the sugar, and boil it