TO PRESERVE PLUMS.

Take fine ripe plums; weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound and a
half of loaf-sugar. Put them into a pan, and scald them in boiling
water to make the skins come off easily. Peel them, and throw them as
you do so into a large china pitcher. Let them set for an hour or two,
and then take them out, saving all the juice that has exuded from them
while in the pitcher. Spread the plums out on large dishes, and cover
them with half the sugar you have allotted to them, (it must be
previously powdered,) and let them lie in it all night. Next morning
pour the juice out of the pitcher into a porcelain preserving kettle,
add the last half of the sugar to it, and let it melt over the fire.
When it has boiled skim it, and then put in the plums. Boil them over a
moderate fire, for about half an hour. Then take them out one by one
with a spoon, and spread them on large dishes to cool. If the syrup is
not sufficiently thick and clear, boil and skim it a little longer till
it is. Put the plums into glass jars and pour the syrup warm over them.

The flavour will be much improved by boiling in the syrup with the
fruit a handful or more of the kernels of plums, blanched in scalding
water and broken in half. Take the kernels out of the syrup before you
pour it into the jars.

You may preserve plums whole, without peeling, by pricking them deeply
at each end with a large needle.

Green gages and damsons maybe preserved according to this receipt.