BOTTLED FRUIT.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 239, 28 January 1888, Page 5

BOTTLED FRUIT.

Many people do nob know that fruib can ; b c perfectly preserved in its natural skate with the use of very little or no sugar, and with only a partial cooking. The cooking, in fact, is merely a thorough heating through, or scalding of the fruit. The help of salicylic acid is not required, and we should nob recommend the use of Buch chemical preservatives, which sometimes prove very deleterious to health. The success of the 'whole operation depends on simply heating the fruit through, and then keeping it) entirely free from contact with the air. The fruit to be preserved should be i-ipe but not over ripe, nor containing any decayed portions. Glass bottles or jars that will hold from a pint to two quarts each are the most suitable. The best form, is wide mouthed bottles or jars, the neck drawn in to give a shoulder for the cork to rest upon. For large fruits wide necks are needed ; for the smaller berry fruits, narrow necks answer perfectly. The bottles or jars should be thoroughly cleaned, and each one fitted with a stopper. You may use cotton wool plugs or proceed as follows :— Have of eoft corks what required, say twenty (not large), and cement made thus : Put in*o a small iron saucepan a quarter of a pound of resin and fully half-an-ounce of tallow, and let ib melt. In the meantime, to every quart of water used, add one pound of loaf-sugar, put together into the preserving pan, and boil twenty minutes ; skim clean, then add the fruit to the syrup, and heat it jusb long enough to barely acald it through then at once, and very gently, put the fruit into the bottles or jars, which should be scalded by previously setting them in cold water, in a large saucepan or wash-boiler, and very gradually allow the water to reach the boiling point. One bottle at a time should be taken from the boiling water, and quickly filled (up to where the bottom of the stoppers will come) with the scalded fruit; give the bottle a slight shake, to make the air-bubbles rise, and add more syrup if needed. The top or neck of the bottle is then to be wiped clean, inside and out, and the stoppers put in and sunk to a level with the top. A little of the warm cement is then dipped on over the stopper to close it tightly. The bottle is then to be turned neck down in a little patty-pan or saucer, and a quantity of cement dropped in to completely enclose the stopper and neck. It is to be left thus until cold, after which the bottles may be left either eide up. Thfr cooling will shrink the. contents so as to create a strong inward pressure, but the patty-pans prevent the stoppers from being pressed in, and the cement shuts oat the air. The whole process is simple, but requires to be very quickly performed. That is, that the bottles must be boiling hot, the fruit put in, and, without a moment's delay, corked up aa desc»ibcd. Note.— Should patty pans (round pieces of tin stamped in the torm of a plate) be not at hand, blocks of wood cut into cup form will answer; they should be partly filled with cement bofoie turning the bottles into them. To Bottle Damsons without Sugar. — Pick the fruit, which should cot be too ripe, care also being taken that none are broken or bruised, and put into dry stone jarsmade hot as described before. When, nearly full of fruit, pour boiling water on the damsons, until it stands one inch above the fruit, cut a piece of paper to fit the inside of the jar, over which pour melted suet. This, layer of suet when cooled, should be about a quarter of an inch in thickness, and is an excellent thing to exclude the air from fruit. Now cover the jars with bladder or tissue paper b> ushed over with the white of egg. When intending to use the fruit, remove the suet, pour off a part of the water, and use what remains, at the bottom of the jar to cook the fruit, adding sugar or honey totaste.