Excerpt from Its History, Varieties, Cultivation, and Diseases: Illustrated Apricots also make one of the most rich and popular preserves. Perfectly ripe apricots needless sugar and less boiling than almost any other fruit perfectly ripe and dry, a little over Mb. Of loaf sugar to llb. Of fruit is suficient. The fruit should neither be broken down nor mashed up any more than can be avoided; it is only needful to halve the fruit and remove the stones. The action of the sugar and heat arising from half an hour or three-quarters' boiling will do the rest. The sugar will penetrate the flesh of the apricots, while the riper fruit will dissolve so as to form rich golden syrup to convert the whole into a solid mass of jam or jelly. Such preserves are far more delicious to eat, as well as richer to look at, than that broken up in the making in the usual way. It is customary to add the kernels in halves, or further reduced, to the jam shortly before it is finished, or to sprinkle them over the pots after they are filled. This gives a rich appearance and a nutty flavour to apricot conserve that is generally much appreciated. After filling the jars they must be made air-tight. The general plan is to leave them till cold, and then tie down with bladder or thick paper; but a better and easier method is to dip paper the proper size for the jars in white of egg, lay these flat over the top, and bind down over the side about gin. All round. By doing this at once, the heat of the jam' and the jar sets the albuminous matter of the egg at once, and fastens it firmly to the jar. The whole is then made air-tight, and the egged paper becomes as stiff as a board, and is quite as impervious to air as the thickest bladder. Jam thus put down and kept in a dry place will remain sweet and good'for two or three years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.