TO PRESERVE PLUMS DRY.
1582. INGREDIENTS.—To every lb. of sugar allow 1/4 pint of water. Mode.—Gather the plums when they are full-grown and just turning colour; prick them, put them into a saucepan of cold water, and set them on the fire until the water is on the point of boiling. Then take them out, drain them, and boil them gently in syrup made with the above proportion of sugar and water; and if the plums shrink, and will not take the sugar, prick them as they lie in the pan; give them another boil, skim, and set them by. The next day add some more sugar, boiled almost to candy, to the fruit and syrup; put all together into a wide-mouthed jar, and place them in a cool oven for 2 nights; then drain the plums from the syrup, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over, and dry them in a cool oven.
Time.—15 to 20 minutes to boil the plums in the syrup. Seasonable from August to October.
PLUMS.—The wild sloe is the parent of the plum, but the acclimated kinds come from the East. The cultivation of this fruit was probably attended to very early in England, as Gerrard informs us that, in 1597, he had in his garden, in Holborn, threescore sorts. The sloe is a shrub common in our hedgerows, and belongs to the natural order Amygdaleae; the fruit is about the size of a large pea, of a black colour, and covered with a bloom of a bright blue. It is one of the few indigenous to our island. The juice is extremely sharp and astringent, and was formerly employed as a medicine, where astringents were necessary. It now assists in the manufacture of a red wine made to imitate port, and also for adulteration. The leaves have been used to adulterate tea; the fruit, when ripe, makes a good preserve.