[Modern cookery, in all its branches

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. 9. Let fruit for preserving be gathered always in perfectly dry weather, and 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 a 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. 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 damson, 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 pans, or in a copper* with water which will reach to quite two-thirds of their height, 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. * The fruit steams perfectly in this, if the cover is placed over it. K K [cHAf. XXlV. 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 RHUBARB JAM. The stalks of the rhubarb (or spring-fruit, as it is called) should be taken for this preserve, which is a very good and useful one, while they are fresh and young. Wipe them very clean, pare them quickly, weigh, and cut them into half-inch lengths; to every pound add an equal weight of good sugar in fine powder ; mix them well together, let them remain for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour to draw out the juice a little, then turn them into a preserving pan, let them heat rather slowly, but as soon as the stalks are tender boil the preserve rapidly, stirring it well for about half an hour. It will be of excellent flavour, and will serve admirably for tarts. A somewhat cheaper mode of making the jam is to stew it until tender in its own juices, and then to boil it rapidly until it is tolerably dry, to add to it only half its weight of sugar, and to give it from twenty to thirty minutes boiling. Spring fruit (rhubarb), 4 lbs. ; sugar, 4 lbs. : heated slowly, and when tender, boiled quickly, 30 minutes. GREEN GOOSEBERRY JELLY.