THE STORE-ROOM.

PRESERVES.

HE lapse of sixty years has been productive of many changes in Housewifery; but in no branch more than in' the contents of the Store-room.

The reason is obvious. Formerly, when receipts were mostly locked up in manuscript-books, and were occasionally interchanged among families, they were highly prized, and the secret was rarely known beyond the circle from which it emanated. As printed receipt-books were multiplied, this kind of information became less rare, but, at the same time, less to be depended on; the compilers of such books being but in few cases qualified by experience for the tasks they had undertaken. By degrees, the work of the store-room, as preserving and confectionery, curing fish and meat, and the preparation of liqueurs, cordials, and British wines, pickling, and what are called store-sauces, became the business of the confectioner, the wine-merchant, and the Italian warehouseman; and persons who had not excelled in these branches of housewifery at home, were the first to encourage the manufactures of the shops. This transfer, if attended with convenience, had, however, its disadvantages. So long as the articles we have enumerated

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were made at home, you knew what they were made of; but by relying upon the shopkeeper, you parted with this security. Such articles were at first sold at high prices, warranted in many cases by the excellence of their preparation. Then came competition, which produced what is miscalled cheapness; besides the misfortune of getting one article and paying for another, either through the ignorance of the manufacturers, or their knavery in the vile practice of adulteration.

Here is an instance. Fifty years ago, a moderate-sized pot of orange-marmalade could not be bought of a confectioner under 3s. or 3s. 6d. It then consisted only of the bitter or Seville orange. The same sized pot can now be bought for less than a shilling; but the marmalade is adulterated with sweet oranges, with apples and turnips, and little more than flavoured with the Seville orange; whilst Dr. Hassall has good authority for stating, that 'partly-decayed oranges, and even sucked oranges, are used in the adulteration of this favourite preserve: these statements rest upon the authority of an eye-witness.' This adulteration is practised chiefly at a certain period of the year, when oranges become scarce, and in order to keep up the stock of marmalade, so called. The detection of the adulteration in three samples, two of them obtained at the establishments of different makers, appears also to show that the malpractice is a very general one. But there is a more serious objection to the use of the manufactured preserves and jellies. If they are prepared in copper vessels, they are always contaminated to a greater or less extent with copper. In the case of green preserves, as in those of pickled and bottled fruits, and vegetables, copper is used intentionally for the purpose of increasing the colour. Again, in some cases, the preserves and jellies are actually adulterated.

Bottled Fruits purchased at the Italian warehouses have

been found to contain copper, employed to heighten their colour, especially the green of gooseberries and green-gages, which has been proved by a steel fork plunged in them being coated with copper. For red fruits, a decoction of logwood or infusion of beet-root is employed, especially when the fruit is damaged, or of inferior quality.

'Vegetable jellies consist of the thick and transparent part of the fruit only, the husks and seeds being removed. Now these really worthless portions of the fruit are rarely, if ever, thrown away by the manufacturers of preserves; but mixed with a little fresh fruit, they are passed off as good jams. In this practice, housekeepers are furnished with a strong reason for preparing their own preserves, and also with an explanation of the general superiority of home-made preserves.'1

The disclosures now made afford convincing proof how improper, and even dangerous, it is to make preserves, as is commonly done even by ordinary housekeepers, in copper pans. The vessels employed for this purpose should consist of earthenware, or, if metallic, should be lined with enamel. Block-tin preserving-pans are much used, as are cast-iron pans double-tinned. Bell-metal pans are general; but the tinning of copper or brass pans soon wears out.

It is not commonly known, but it is nevertheless a fact, that home-made green-gage jam is caused to look very green, and a similar hue is given to pickles, by boiling with them copper coin, for which the vegetable acids have some affinity, and on which they act as solvents of their verdigris. Francatelli gives a receipt to make green-gage jam which shall be unmistakeably green, and for which his copper preserving-pan is an equivalent to the pennypieces. the fruit,' he says, 'all over with a pin, and drop them into the copper preserving-pan;' but then he adds in a note,

1 Adulterations Detected, p. 415.

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It is proper to remark here, that all fruits and jams preserved of a green colour, as herein indicated, are necessarily less wholesome as articles of food than any others preserved according to the ordinary instructions contained in this work. Let it therefore be clearly understood, that preserves so coloured are proper for decorative purposes only,' and are not to be eaten.

The Wine-sour is the most valuable of all our Plums for preserving, and may be kept one or two years; and the white Bullace, when boiled in sugar, may be kept twelve months. The sloe, when ripe, forms an excellent preserve, and will communicate to wine the roughness of port.

Damsons may be preserved like gooseberries, without sugar; or by boiling together one-third as much sugar as fruit, till a jam is formed. Another method is: Fill jars a quarter up with fruit, then the same with sugar, and so on, and bake the whole in an oven. When cold, cover the fruit with white paper, over which pour melted mutton-suet, about half an inch thick. A large kind of fruit called Prune Damsons make very fine tarts, as do also Mussel-plums.

To preserve Pine-Apples.—In July and August, when pineapples are imported from the West Indies by thousands, choose sound but ripe fruit, pare it, and cut it into thickish slices. To each pound of fruit weigh a pound of loaf-sugar, of which dissolve a portion in a quarter of a pint of water, and set in the pan over the fire; add the remainder of the sugar, and make into a syrup, skimming it well. Then put in the pieces of pine, boil half an hour, or till nearly transparent, when put it into pots, and when cold tie over.

Syrup for preserving Fruit.—The best sugar will not require clarifying. If it be of inferior quality, to clarify six pounds of sugar, break it into large lumps, which put into a preserving-pan, and pour over it five pints of cold spring

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water in another pint beat up the white of one egg, which add to the sugar, stirring the whole well together. Set the pan over a gentle fire when the sugar is nearly dissolved, and let the scum rise; take it off the fire, in two minutes, skim it very clean; let it boil again, when throw in half a cup of cold water, to bring the remainder of the scum to the surface; strain it through a cloth, and it will be ready for use, or for further boiling. Unripe fruit should be rendered tender by scalding before it is put into syrup, which must be thin at first, and thickened by further boiling, or with additional sugar, else the fruit will shrivel instead of being plump and clear. A pound of sugar, boiled ten minutes in a pint of water, will make a light syrup, which will thicken if rapidly boiled in an uncovered pan.

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To preserve Fruit without Sugar.—Pick any kind of fruit not dead-ripe, and put it into wide-mouthed bottles; set the bottles in a kettle, with cold water up to the necks, place them over the fire, and when the fruit begins to sink, take off the kettle; when cold, fill up each bottle with boiled spring water, cold; cork the bottles, and set them on their sides; or set them with the corks downwards, in a rack. Or the fruit in the bottles may be set in an oven after the bread is drawn, and let stand till shrunk a quarter part, when the bottles should be corked closely. All fruit, gathered and bottled the same day, may be preserved without loss by breakage of bottles, and will keep well; when the fruit is not gathered and bottled the same day, there will be more liability of breakage; and the fruit will often show a small white spot, and become musty. To bottle red currants, pick them unbroken from the stalks into dry, widemouthed bottles, adding as you fill, some finely-sifted loaf

1 Robinson's Whole Art of Curing, Pickling, and Smoking Meat and Fish, 1847.