tened
chocolate, a scant cup of milk, one tablespoonful of butter. Boil for
ten minutes until it holds well together when dropped in cold water.
Take from the fire, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, beat
from three to five minutes until thick and creamy, turn into a buttered
pan and cut in squares.

Preserves.

PRESERVE OF MIXED FRUITS.

Five pounds of ripe currants or cherries, five pounds of granulated
sugar, two pounds of seeded raisins, the pulp of six oranges cut in
small pieces, and the rind of two oranges cut fine. Boil three-quarters
of an hour. Grapes can be used instead of currants or cherries.

RED CURRANT JAM.

Pick the currants from the stems, weigh them, and allow three-quarters
of a pound of white sugar to a pound of the fruit. Put the currants in a
preserving kettle, mash them a little to prevent them from sticking to
the kettle, and boil for fifteen minutes, then add the sugar and boil
rapidly for ten minutes. Bottle and seal tight.

RED CURRANT JELLY.

Berries for jelly must be picked when the weather is dry. Pick them
over, taking out all leaves, etc., put them in the kettle and mash them
a little to get enough juice to keep them from burning; stir constantly,
and as soon as hot wring them dry through a cheese cloth. Measure the
liquid and to every pint of juice allow one pound of sugar. Put the
juice on the fire and boil fifteen minutes, then add the sugar and boil
fifteen minutes more, skimming thoroughly. Pour into glasses while hot;
let them stand until the next day and cover. Very often jelly is soft,
and always from one of two reasons: either the berries have been picked
immediately after a rain or the sugar is adulterated.

RED CURRANT SYRUP.

The currants must be fresh and perfectly ripe and picked in dry weather.
Wash and put them in either a porcelain-lined or a granite-ware kettle,
stir until they are tender, as for currant jelly, then remove from the
fire and wring them as dry as possible in a cheese cloth. Measure the
juice and return it to the fire, let it cook fifteen minutes, then add a
pound of granulated sugar to each quart of juice, boil gently fifteen
minutes, skimming as long as the scum rises. Bottle and cork well and
keep in a dark place. Raspberry and strawberry syrup are made in the
same way, only mashing and straining the fruit and measuring the juice
before cooking.

BLACK CURRANT SYRUP.

Pick from the stems and mash them, a few at