The juice of oranges, strawberries, currants, or any fruit makes a delicious first course for luncheon in summer time or the fruit season, when prepared as directed below. It is served cold in small gla.s.ses and eaten with a spoon.

Take a quart of fruit-juice; this will require about a dozen oranges, or two quarts of strawberries or other juicy fruit; strain it through filter paper to make it clear (see page 415); put it in an earthenware or porcelain-lined saucepan on the fire, and as soon as it steams, stir in three teaspoonfuls of arrowroot moistened in a little cold water.

Cook it until clear; then add a half cupful of sugar (or more if an acid fruit), and as soon as the sugar is dissolved turn it into a bowl to cool. At the moment of serving put a piece of ice in each gla.s.s.

CHAPTER XXV

COMPOTES, PRESERVING AND CANNING, PICKLES

=COMPOTES=

[Sidenote: For plain desserts.]

Compotes are fresh fruits stewed. They are good served with cake as a plain dessert. In combination with rice or other molded cereals they are a very wholesome sweet for children.

[Sidenote: Serving.]

Make a syrup of 28 (see page 513). When it is boiling drop the fruit in, a few pieces at a time, so it will not get broken or crushed. Let it cook until tender, but still firm enough to hold its form. Remove it carefully with a skimmer.

Arrange the pieces in regular order, overlapping, or piled like uncooked fruit in a gla.s.s or silver dish. After the fruit is cooked, let the syrup boil down until thick, or about 32, and strain it over the fruit. Let it cool before serving.

=APPLE COMPOTE=

Pare and core the apples; leave them whole, or cut them into halves, quarters, or thick round slices. Boil them until tender, and finish as directed above. Have a few slices of lemon in the syrup and serve them with the fruit. Pieces of cinnamon and cloves boiled with the fruit give a good flavor.

For jellied apples boil down the syrup to the jelly point. When partly cooled pour it slowly with a spoon over the apples, so enough will adhere to give them a glaze. The center of the apples may be filled with a bright-colored jelly or jam.

=COMPOTE OF PEARS=

Use pears that are not quite ripe. Cut them in two lengthwise, splitting the stem. Remove the core carefully with a scoop. Boil and serve them as directed above.

=COMPOTE OF PEACHES OR APRICOTS=

Peel the fruit and cut it in halves. Prepare it as directed above. Mix with the syrup some meats taken from the pits.

=COMPOTE OF ORANGES=

Peel the oranges down to the pulp, using a sharp knife. Cut them in two crosswise. Remove with a pointed knife the core and seeds from the center. Boil them, one or two at a time, until tender, in a syrup with a little lemon-juice added, and be careful to keep them in good shape.

Boil the syrup down until it threads, and pour it over the oranges piled in a gla.s.s dish. A candied cherry in the center of each one gives a pretty garnish. Orange compote is good served plain, or with whipped cream, with ice-creams, Bavarians, or corn-starch puddings. Mandarin oranges make a delicious compote.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMPOTE OF ORANGES GARNISHED WITH CANDIED CHERRIES. (SEE PAGE 536.)]

PRESERVING AND CANNING

[Sidenote: Sterilizing the fruit.]

[Sidenote: Use of paraffin.]

[Sidenote: Proportions.]

[Sidenote: Utensils.]

The success of preserving and canning depends upon heating the fruit until all germs are destroyed, then sealing it air-tight while still scalding hot. In this way no new germs of ferment or mold can reach the fruit. Patent jars are generally used, and must be put into scalding water before being filled to prevent their breaking, and also to sterilize them. The preserve must be put into them scalding hot, a spoon-handle run down the sides to liberate any bubbles of air, the jar filled to the very brim, and the top put on each one at once after it is filled. A simple and very effectual way of hermetically sealing fruit is to cover it with paraffin. This can be obtained at any pharmacy. Place the paraffin in a small saucepan on the side of the range; it melts at a low degree of heat. When the jar or gla.s.s is filled with hot preserves wipe the gla.s.s close to the fruit to free it of syrup. Cover the top with a tablespoonful of liquid paraffin, and do not move the jar until the paraffin has set; it will then adhere closely to the gla.s.s. This will be found a very easy and satisfactory way of sealing fruits. The paraffin when taken off the fruit can be washed and kept to use again. In preserving, sugar is used in the proportion of three quarters of a pound or one pound of sugar to a pound of fruit, and the fruit is thoroughly cooked. In canning, one quarter of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is used, the fruit is only thoroughly scalded, and so retains its flavor better. Fruits should be under rather than overripe for preserving, and only the finest should be selected. Inferior fruit may be used for jams. It is most abundant when at its best, and at this time it is cheapest. A porcelain-lined kettle and wooden spoons should be used in the cooking, and a wide-mouthed funnel is a convenience for filling the jars.

=PRESERVED PEACHES=

The skin can easily be removed from peaches, leaving a smooth surface, by placing them in a wire basket and plunging it for a moment into boiling lye. The lye is made by adding two cupfuls of wood ashes to four quarts of water. From the lye put the fruit into cold water and rinse it several times, then rub off the skin. Cut each peach in two and place again in cold water to preserve the color until ready to use. Place in a porcelain-lined kettle three quarters the weight of sugar you have of fruit. Add a very little water to dissolve the sugar. Let it boil a minute, and take off any sc.u.m that rises. Then add as much fruit as will float without crowding, and cook until it is transparent, but not until it loses shape. Remove each piece separately as soon as it is cooked.

When ready to fill the jars place them carefully in a pan of boiling water; have the tops and rubbers also in hot water. Part of the fruit has become cooled while the rest was cooking, but, as it must go into the jars hot, place it again in the boiling syrup, a little at a time.

Use a ladle or cup to dip out the fruit; run a spoon-handle around the inside of the jars after they are filled to liberate any air bubbles.

Add enough syrup to fill them to overflowing, and adjust the rubber and top on each jar as it is filled. Any juice that is left over may be boiled down to a jelly, or it may be bottled to use as flavoring or for sauces.

=PRESERVED PEARS=

Peel the pears; cut them in two lengthwise, splitting the stem, or they may be left whole if preferred. Place them carefully in jars; fill the jars with a syrup of 30 (see page 513); cover the jars without fastening the tops. Place the jars in a boiler of warm water, half covering them. Stand the jars on m.u.f.fin-rings, slats of wood, or something to raise them off the bottom of the boiler, or they will break while cooking. Cover the boiler and cook the fruit until it is tender and looks clear. Remove the jars carefully, fill them completely full, using more hot syrup, or the contents of one of the cooked jars. Adjust the tops and set them to cool where the air will not strike them. (See canning.) Pears may be cooked the same as peaches, but they are such a very tender fruit, it is better to use the method given, as the shape is kept better in this way.

=PRESERVED PLUMS=

Preserve plums in the same way as directed for peaches or for pears.

Remove the skin from them or not. If left on it is likely to crack open and come off if boiled too long. To prevent this, in a measure, p.r.i.c.k the plums in several places with a fork before cooking.

=GRAPE PRESERVES=

Press the pulp out of each grape. Boil the pulps until tender, then pa.s.s them through a colander to remove the seeds. Mix the skins with the pulp and juice, add as many cupfuls of sugar as there are of grapes, and boil all together until well thickened.

Seal while hot the same as other preserves.

Green grapes are preserved by cutting each grape in halves, taking out the seeds, then adding an equal quant.i.ty of sugar, and boiling all together until of the right consistency.

=PRESERVED STRAWBERRIES No. 1=

Select firm, large berries and remove the hulls. To each pound of fruit (one basketful of berries will weigh about a pound) add three quarters of a pound of granulated sugar. Mix it with the berries, and let them stand ten to fifteen minutes, or long enough to moisten the sugar but not soften the berries. Put them in a granite or porcelain-lined saucepan and let them boil slowly five to ten minutes, or until the berries are softened: do not stir them, as that will break the berries, and do not boil long enough for them to lose their shape. Cook one basketful of berries only at a time. A larger quant.i.ty crushes by its own weight. A good method is to have two saucepans and two bowls, and leave the berries, after being hulled, in the baskets until ready to use; then put a basketful at a time in a bowl with sugar sprinkled through them; while one bowlful is being cooked, the bowl refilled, and the gla.s.ses filled, the other one is ready to use. In this way no time is lost, and the cooking is accomplished in as short a time as though all were put into a preserving kettle together. It is well to put strawberries into gla.s.ses. One basketful of berries will fill two half-pint tumblers. Cover the tops with paraffin as directed above, page 537.

=PRESERVED STRAWBERRIES No. 2=