2567.—ORANGES AND LEMONS, TO PRESERVE WHOLE.
Ingredients.—Oranges or lemons. To 1 lb. of oranges allow 2 lbs. of sugar and 1 pint of water; to lemons add 3 lbs. of sugar and 1½ pints of water.
Method.—At one end of each orange make a hole sufficiently large to admit a small spoon, and scoop out the pulp and juice. Cover the rinds with cold water, and let them remain for 3 days, changing the water 2 or 3 times daily. Drain, place them in the preserving pan with sufficient cold water to cover them, simmer gently until tender, and drain well. Boil the sugar and water to a syrup, add the juice and pulp, boil gently for 15 minutes, and pour the whole over the oranges. When quite cold, replace in the pan, simmer very gently for ½ an hour, then turn into an earthenware vessel. On the following day boil up the syrup and pour it over the oranges; this process should be repeated on 2 or 3 consecutive days until the rinds are quite clear. Fill the oranges with syrup, place them in wide-necked jars, pour the remainder of the syrup over them, and cover closely. Store in a cool, dry place.
2568.—ORANGES, TO PRESERVE. (See Oranges and Lemons, To Preserve Whole, No. 2567.)
2569.—PEACH MARMALADE. (See Apple Marmalade, No. 2500, and Rhubarb Marmalade, No. 2594.)
2570.—PEACHES PRESERVED IN BRANDY.
Ingredients.—6 lbs. of peaches, 3 lbs. of castor or powdered loaf sugar, 3 pints of brandy.
Method.—Peaches intended for preserving should be firm, sound, and not over-ripe. Remove the stones, taking care to keep the fruit as whole as possible, place the fruit in a large jar, and cover each layer thickly with sugar. Add the brandy, cover closely, place the jar in a saucepan of boiling water, and cook gently until the brandy is on the point of boiling. Remove the fruit carefully to hot, dry, small pots, add to each an equal share of the hot brandy, and cover closely with paper brushed over with white of egg. Store in a cool, dry place.
Time.—About 1 hour. Average Cost, 2d. each.
Peach and Nectarine.—At Montreuil, a village near Paris, almost the whole population is employed in the cultivation of peaches. This occupation has maintained the inhabitants for ages, and in consequence they raise better peaches than anywhere else in France. In Maryland and Virginia peaches grow nearly wild, in orchards resembling forests; but the fruit is of very little value for the table, being employed only in fattening hogs and for the distillation of peach brandy. In California large groves of peaches and apricots are grown, the finest being exported, packed in baskets half ripe, in the form of "evaporated" or oven-dried peaches, and as canned fruit. On the east side of the Andes, peaches grow wild among the cornfields and in the mountains, and are dried as an article of food. The young leaves of the peach are sometimes used in cookery, for their agreeable flavour; and a liqueur resembling the fine noyeau of Martinique may be made by steeping them in brandy sweetened with sugar and fined with milk; gin may also be flavoured in the same manner. The kernels of the fruit have the same flavour. The nectarine is said to have received its name from Nectar, the wine of the gods. It belongs to the same species as the peach, differing from it in having a smoother rind and pulp. The nectarine is, by some, considered the superior fruit.
