Quince Preserves ( Mrs. Hazard ).
Pare, core, and quarter the quinces. Select the best-looking quarters for the preserves; the inferior-looking ones reserve, with the cores and skins, for the marmalade.
For the preserves, allow three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Make a sirup as before described (sirup for preserves), allowing one pint of water to two pounds of sugar. When it is clear, and still boiling-hot, add the hot quinces, which have been boiled in just enough clear water to cover them well-boiled until they are tender, or are easily pierced with a broom-straw—no longer. The preserves are now ready to be put away. With this proportion of fruit, water, and sugar, the preserves will not have much juice. What there is will form a thin, clear jelly around the quinces after they are kept a short time: the hot sirup will draw juice from the hot quinces to flavor and color it just enough. There is much difference in the choice of quinces. There is a kind which makes a white or light-colored preserve, very inferior in flavor to the large quince, which makes the red.