ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 9, 4 March 1893, Page 214

ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

* Cookie.’—Your request is a little late in the season, but I have much pleasure in giving you the recipe for bottled plums. Wash and drain, weigh, and allow from one-third to one-half pound of sugar to each pound of fruit. Spread plums on a large platter and pour the sugar over them. Prepare only enough on each platter for about two glass jars, let them stand until morning, then put in porcelain kettle, enough for two jars ; cook slowly so as to keep the fruit whole ; when soft, dip into bottles; or you can make a syrup by dissolving sugar with a little water; prick the plums with a fork ; when the syrup is hot, put them in, cooking them slowly ; put into bottles. To preserve egg plums : Pour boiling water over them, cover, and let them steam, uncover and pour water off, rub the skins off the fruit, weigh, and put into a stone jar ; make a syrup allowing one pound of white sugar and half a teacupful of water for each pound of fruit; let it boil and skim well, then pour syrup over the plums. The next day pour all in a kettle and cook slowly ten or fifteen minutes ; return the fruit to the jar and let it stand until cold, then fit on the lid, carefully filling up with syrup. Another correspondent kindly sends the following:—l have frequently and most successfully bottled fruit in this manner. Put the bottles containing the plums, or whatever you wish, in the oven full of cold water, with no sugar, no covering. Cook until the water sinks a little, and until globules show in the liquor. Place on the table, fill to overflowing with boiling water; carefully break all the globules with a.silver spoon so that no air remains; whilst overflowing screw on the lid. ‘Violet.’—l have just received the following:—Tomato Jam : The small round ones are the best for this purpose. See that they are red. Cut off stalks and wash them, then cut each fruit in half and squeeze to extract the watery matter and the pips. Cook for twenty minutes or half-an-hour ; with a wooden spoon press the whole through a sieve ; place again on the fire and reduce until the consistence of thick pea-soup. To each pound of this puree add 12oz. of -Cossipore sugar, flavour with essence of lemon and almond; place again on a quick clear fire in a copper pan and cook for twenty-five minutes, stirring it well from the bottom. The exact time for boiling is impossible to give, but at the end of twenty-five minutes try, by dropping on a cold plate, and if the drop preserves its shape without much spreading and is firm in a few minutes it is done, and should be poured into hot vessels at once for for keeping. A piece of shingle paling, cut in the shape of a child’s spade, but with the handle twice as long, will be the best thing to use, as you can stand at a distance to avoid the splashing of the hot liquid, which always happens when quickly and properly boiled.—(Many thanks).