Fruit recipes

Pare the lemons quite thin and cover the shavings of the yellow rind with good grain-alcohol. Cork tight. When ready for use the alcohol will be bright yellow. This should then be poured off into a second bottle from which _ it is to be used. THE LEMON LEMON SUGAR FOR FLAVOURING (Or “‘Zest”) Rub lumps of sugar over lemon rind until the oil cells are broken, when the oil will be absorbed by the sugar. Place the sugar in an air-tight jar and it will be ready for dissolving at any time. LEMON RIND PRESERVE Save the lemon shells left after squeezing for lemonade, etc., and drop them into a jar of fresh water, changing the latter every third day and at this time removing carefully the drops of oil found floating on the water. These should be put into a special bottle as they are the pure oil of lemon. At the end of two weeks scrape out the soft, inside, pulp, leaving only the rind shell. To the yellow shells sugar should be added in proportion of pound for pound and cooked slowly into a thick preserve. LEMON PRESERVES (With White Pulp) Boil the entire lemon ‘‘husks”’ (after squeezing from them the juice for other uses) in fresh water until tender, then cook in a syrup (previously prepared) made of five pounds of sugar to a pint of water. Cook until preserves are thick, clear, and yellow, but not too dark in colour. LEMON MARMALADE To six pounds of lemons take nine pounds of sugar. Peel the lemons, then cover yellow parings with water and boil until tender. Drain and let cool, then shred fine the parings. Meantime halve the peeled fruit crosswise and press out juice and soft pulp. Cover the shells of white pulp remaining with three pints of cold water and boil one-half hour. Strain off this liquor and add it to the juice and soft pulp, with the yellow rinds. Boil all / together ten minutes, then add heated sugar; boil down to desired consistency and place, while boiling hot, in small jars or marmalade pots. LEMON JELLY No. 1 (Without Gelatine) It is usually considered impossible to make lemon jelly without gelatine but by the following process the apparently impossible may be achieved. Small quantities are best managed and most successful in results. Slice four lemons very thin and cover (in granite kettle) with two quarts of cold water. Cook down to one-half the quantity and strain, squeezing skin and pulp as well as juice through a coarse cheesecloth bag. Cook again and when at boiling point strain a second time but through a fine bag. Return juice to kettle and after ten minutes’ simmering add hot sugar in proportion of one heaping pint to one scant pint of juice. Boil until sugar melts and it jells, which should require but five or six minutes. The result is a light tender jelly which will acquire firmness by being set in the hot sun several days in succession. A second method is to proceed as above, with the addition of uncooked “‘pie-melon’’ pulp (half and half with the lemon in weight), using sugar in proportionate addition. . LEMON JELLY No. 2 (With Gelatine) Soak one box of gelatine (American brands preferably) in one pint of cold water for an hour, when add one quart of boiling water and two cups of sugar. Stir until gelatine is thoroughly dissolved. When cool add the juice of four lemons and strain through coarse cotton cloth into glasses or other moulds when partly cool, setting on ice to harden. This may be more tart than desired; if so add sugar just at the last. In warm weather if ice is unavailable use but one pint of hot water. ‘MONS WITH BLOSSOMS CALIFORNIA LE AN[illustration: California Lemons with Blossoms; Spanish Lime or Gingeng]L LEMON HONEY To the juice of two lemons add one pint of sugar and one-half pint of water. Cook until thick. PICKLED LEMONS (Helen Harcourt)