The New England Cook Book, or Young Housekeeper's Guide: Being a Collection of the Most Valuable Receipts; Embracing all the Various Branches of Cookery, and Written in a Minute and Methodical Manner

will do with less. Put your sugar into your preserving kettle, and turn in as much cold water as you think will cover your fruit, when put in, add the white of an egg to every three pounds of sugar, then put it over a slow fire; when the sugar has dissolved, put it where it will boil, let it boil several minutes, then take it from the fire, and skim it till clear, put it back on the fire, when the scum rises again, take the kettle off and skim it again, this operation repeat till it is perfectly clear, then put in the fruit. If you have not syrup enough to cover the fruit, take the fruit out and put in more cold water, and let it get to boiling before you put in the fruit, if you have too much syrup, it should boil away before you boil your fruit in it. White sugar is better than brown for preserving, but brown sugar answers very well for common sweet meats. Every kind of ware but iron, will do to preserve in, but earthen ware is the best on account of its not imparting an unpleasant taste, to the sweet meats. 234. _To Preserve Quinces._ Quinces if very ripe, are best pared and cut in slices about an inch thick, the cores should be taken out carefully with a small knife, then put the quinces in clarified syrup, and boil them till you can stick a broom splinter through them easily, take them up and put them in jars, and turn the syrup over them, cover them up, and put them in a cool place, as soon as done. Quinces preserved in this manner retain more of their natural flavor, but they cannot be preserved in this way without they are very ripe. If not very ripe pare and halve them, and take out the cores. Boil the quinces till tender, then take them out, strain the water they were boiled in, and use it to make a syrup for the quinces, allow a pound of sugar to