TO PRESERVE RED CRAB APPLES.

Take red or Siberian crab apples when they are quite ripe and the seeds
are black. Wash and wipe them, and put them into a kettle with
sufficient water to cover them. Simmer them very slowly till you find
that the skin will come off easily. Then take them out and peel and
core them; extract the cores carefully with a small knife, so as not to
break the apples. Then weigh them, and to every pound of crab apples
allow a pound and a half of loaf-sugar and a half pint of water. Put
the sugar and water into a preserving kettle, and when they are melted
together, set it over the fire and let it boil. After skimming it once,
put in the crab apples, adding a little cochineal powder rubbed with a
knife into a very small quantity of white brandy till it has dissolved.
This will greatly improve the colour of the apples. Cover them and let
them boil till clear and tender, skimming the syrup when necessary.
Then spread them out on dishes, and when they are cold, put them into
glass jars and pour the syrup over them.

The flavour will be greatly improved by boiling with them in the syrup,
a due proportion of lemon-juice and the peel of the lemons pared thin
so as to have the yellow part only. If you use lemon-juice put a
smaller quantity of water to the sugar. Allow one large lemon or two
smaller ones to each pound of crab apples.

If you find that after they have been kept awhile, the syrup inclines
to become dry or candied, give it another boil with the crab apples in
it, adding a tea-cup full of water to about three or four pounds of the
sweetmeat.
