Portable French Furnace, with Stewpan and Trevet.

No. 1. Portable French Furnace.-2. Depth at which the grating is placed.3. Stew pan.-4. Trevet.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

FRUIT for preserving should always be gathered in perfectly dry weather; it should also be free both from the morning and evening dew, and as much so as possible from dust. When bottled, it must be steamed or baked during the day on which it is gathered, or there will be great loss from the bursting of the bottles; and for jams and jellies it cannot be too soon boiled down after it is taken from the trees.

The small portable French stove, or furnace,* shown above, with the trevet and stewpan adapted to it, is exceedingly convenient for all preparations which require either more than usual attention, or a fire entirely free from smoke; as it can be placed on a table in a clear light, and the heat can be regu

lated at pleasure. It has been used for all the preserves, of

* Called in France, Un Forneau Economique. To be had of Mr. LIVERMORE, 30, Oxford-street, at a very trifling expense, not more than seven shillings, the stewpan, of course, not included. A baking-tin should be placed on the table for the furnace to stand upon, to guard against danger from the ashes or embers falling.

which the receipts are given in this chapter, as well as for various dishes contained in the body of the work. There should always be a free current of air in the room in which it stands when lighted, as charcoal or braise (that is to say, the little embers of large well-burned wood, drawn from an oven,

Closed Furnace and Cover.

and shut immediately into a closely-stopped iron or copper vessel to extinguish them) is the only fuel suited to it. To kindle either of these, two or three bits must be lighted in a common fire, and laid on the top of that in the furnace, which should be evenly placed between the grating and the brim, and then blown gently with the bellows until the whole is alight: the door of the furnace must in the mean while be open, and remain so, unless the heat should at any time be too fierce for the preserves, when it must be closed for a few minutes, to moderate it. To extinguish the fire altogether, the cover must be pressed closely on, and the door be quite shut: the embers which remain will serve to rekindle it easily, but before it is again lighted the grating must be lifted out and all the ashes cleared away. It should be set by in a place which is not damp.

Grating.

Form of Trevet.

The German enamelled stewpans, now coming into general use, are, from the peculiar nicety of the composition with which they are lined, better adapted than any others to pickling and preserving, as they may be used without danger for acids; and red fruits, when boiled in them, retain the brightness of their colour as well as if copper or bellmetal were used for them. The form of the old-fashioned preserving pan, made usually of one or the other of these, is shown above; but it has not, we should say, even the advantage of

being of convenient shape; for the handles quickly become heated, and the pan, in consequence, cannot always be instantaneously raised from the fire when the contents threaten to over-boil, or to burn.

It is desirable to have three or four wooden spoons

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or

Copper Preserving Pan. spatulas, one fine hair-sieve, at the least, one or two large squares of common muslin, and a strainer, or more of closer texture, kept exclusively for preparations of fruit, for if used for other purposes, there is the hazard, without great care, of their retaining some strong or coarse flavour, which they would impart to the preserves. A sieve, for example, through which any preparation of onions has been poured, should never, on any account, be brought into use for any kind of confectionary, nor in making sweet dishes, nor for straining eggs or milk for puddings, cakes, or bread. Damp is the great enemy, not only of preserves and pickles, but of numberless other household stores; yet, in many situations, it is extremely difficult to exclude it. To keep them in a dry cool place" (words which occur so frequently both in this book, and in most others on the same subject), is more easily directed than done. They remain, we find, more entirely free from any danger of moulding, when covered with a brandied paper only, and placed on the shelves of a tolerably dry store-room; but they are rather liable to candy when thus kept, and we fancy that the flavour of the fruit is somewhat less perfectly preserved than when they are quite secured from the air by skins stretched over the jars. If left uncovered, the inroads of mice upon them must be guarded against, as they will commit great havoc in a single night on these sweet stores. When the slightest fermentation is perceptible in syrup, it should immediately be boiled for some minutes, and well skimmed; the fruit taken from it should then be thrown in, and well scalded also, and the whole, when done, should be turned into a very clean dry jar: this kind of preserve should always be covered with one or two skins, or with parchment and thick paper.

A FEW GENERAL RULES AND DIRECTIONS FOR PRESERVING.

1. Let everything used for the purpose be delicately clean and dry; bottles especially so.

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2. Never place a preserving pan flat upon the fire, as this will render the preserve liable to burn to, as it is called; that is to say, to adhere closely to the metal, and then to burn; it should rest always on a trevet (that shown with the French furnace is very convenient, even for a common grate), or on the lowered bar of the kitchen range.

3. After the sugar is added to them, stir the preserves gently at first, and more quickly towards the end, without quitting them until they are done; this precaution will always prevent the chance of their being spoiled.

4. All preserves should be perfectly cleared from the scum as it rises.

5. Fruit which is to be preserved in syrup must first be blanched or boiled gently, until it is sufficiently softened to absorb the sugar; and a thin syrup must be poured on it at first, or it will shrivel instead of remaining plump, and becoming clear. Thus, if its weight of sugar is to be allowed, and boiled to a syrup with a pint of water to the pound, only half the weight must be taken at first, and this must not be boiled with the water more than fifteen or twenty minutes at the commencement of the process; a part of the remaining sugar must be added every time the syrup is reboiled, unless it should be otherwise directed in the receipt.

6. To preserve both the true flavour and the colour of fruit in jams and jellies, boil them rapidly until they are well reduced, before the sugar is added, and quickly afterwards, but do not allow them to become so much thickened that the sugar will not dissolve in them easily, and throw up its scum. In some seasons, the juice is so much richer than in others, that this effect takes place almost before one is aware of it; but the drop which adheres to the skimmer, when it is held up, will show the state it has reached.

7. Never use tin, iron, or pewter spoons, or skimmers for preserves, as they will convert the colour of red fruit into a dingy purple, and impart, besides, a very unpleasant flavour.

8. When cheap jams or jellies are required, make them at once with Lisbon sugar, but use that which is well refined always, for preserves in general; it is a false economy, as we have elsewhere observed, to purchase an inferior kind, as there is great waste from it in the quantity of scum which it throws up. The best has been used for all the receipts given here.

TO EXTRACT THE JUICE OF PLUMS FOR JELLY.

Take the stalks from the fruit, and throw aside all that is not perfectly sound; put it into very clean, large stone jars, and give part of the harder kinds, such as bullaces and damsons, a gash with a knife as they are thrown in; do this especially in filling the upper part of the jars. Tie one or two folds of thick paper over them, and set them for the night into an oven from which the bread has been drawn four or five hours; or cover them with bladder, instead of paper, place them in deep pans of water, and boil them gently from two to three hours, or until the fruit is quite soft, and has yielded all the juice it will afford this last is the safer and better mode for jellies of delicate colour.

TO WEIGH THE JUICE OF FRUIT.

Put a basin into one scale, and its weight into the other; add to this last the weight which is required of the juice, and pour into the basin as much as will balance the scales. It is always better to weigh than to measure the juice for preserving, as it can generally be done with more exactness.

GREEN GOOSEBERRY JELLY.

Wash some freshly gathered gooseberries very clean, after having taken off the tops and stalks, then to each pound, pour three quarters of a pint of spring water and simmer them until they are well broken; turn the whole into a jelly-bag or cloth, and let all the juice drain through; weigh, and boil it rapidly for fifteen minutes. Draw it from the fire, and stir into it until entirely dissolved an equal weight of good sugar reduced to powder; boil the jelly from fifteen to twenty minutes longer, or until it jellies strongly on the spoon or skimmer; clear it perfectly from scum, and pour it into small jars, moulds, or glasses. It ought to be very pale and transparent. Preserved fruits just dipped into hot water to take off the syrup, then well drained and dried, may be arranged with good effect in the centre of the gooseberry jelly if the glasses be rather less than half filled before they are laid in, and the jelly just set: the remainder must be kept liquid to fill them up. The sugar may be added to the juice at first, and the preserve boiled from twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, but the colour will not then be so good. When the fruit abounds the juice may be drawn from it with very little water,