BRANDIED FRUITS.

THIS French fruit preserves is truly delicious, and should be put up in the month of June. To every pound of fruit take one pound of sugar. It requires no cooking at all, and is therefore easily made. Any child can follow the directions. Begin with strawberries. Get the largest and soundest berries in the market. Pick two quarts and lay them in a new and perfectly clean two-gallon stone jar and cover with two pounds of the finest granulated sugar. Stone as many pounds of red, black and white cherries as you wish to use, and add the same quantity of sugar. You may also use bananas, pineapples or oranges. Seed the latter carefully. Be sure to weigh all the fruit, and allow one pound of sugar to every additional pound of fruit. Now pour over the fruit a pint of pure alcohol, in which you have dissolved five cents' worth of salicylic acid. Tie up the jar with thick paper, and in season add peaches, apricots, raspberries, blackberries, large, red currants; in fact, all kinds of fruit. Greengages and purple and red plums also add both to looks and taste. Be sure to add the same amount of sugar as you do fruit, but no more alcohol. In the fall of the year pack in glass jars; looks very pretty. Keep it in a dry, cool place. There is always a surplus of juice, which makes excellent pudding sauces. Add a little water and thicken.

Select only the largest and finest quality of clingstone peaches. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit, and a pint of the best brandy to every four pounds of peaches. Make a syrup of the sugar with enough water to just dissolve it, and boil about half a dozen blanched peach kernels with it. When the syrup boils put in the fruit and let it boil about five minutes. Remove the fruit carefully upon platters, and let the syrup boil fifteen or twenty minutes longer, skimming it well. Put the peaches in wide-mouthed glass jars. If the syrup has thickened pour in the brandy. Remove from the fire at once, pour over the fruit and seal.

Pare the fruit, leaving the stems on. Weigh and allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. Heat the fruit and sugar like you would for preserves, adding enough water to prevent burning. Remove the pears to platters as soon as tender--so tender that you can pierce with a straw. Let the syrup boil until thick, having added a small bag of spices in boiling. Let the syrup boil very fast. In the meantime, put the pears in glass jars, fill two-thirds full, add the brandy to the boiling syrup, and take the kettle at once from the fire. Pour boiling hot over the fruit, and seal. Allow a pint of best brandy to every four pounds of fruit. Use none but the best. If you can not afford brandied fruit it is no disgrace, but don't try and put up fruit in whisky or some other cheap stuff.

Select the largest sweet cherries for this purpose, leaving the stems on. Allow half a pound of sugar to every pound of fruit, and a pint of good brandy for every five pounds of fruit. Make a syrup of the sugar, using as little water as possible. Pour it over the cherries and let them remain in the syrup all night. Next day put them in a preserving kettle and heat slowly. Boil about eight minutes. Take up the cherries with a perforated skimmer and boil the syrup fifteen minutes. Add the brandy to the boiling syrup, remove from the fire and pour over the cherries hot, and seal.

Select large yellow, pear-shaped quinces, and peel and quarter them. Take out the cores and throw into cold water, until all are pared. Then boil until tender, so they can easily be pierced. Take them out with a perforated skimmer and weigh. Then take three quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of quinces, and boil in a little over half the quince water. Add stick cinnamon and cloves (removing the soft heads). Boil until quite a thick syrup. Pack the quinces in jars, add a pint of good brandy to the syrup and pour boiling hot over the quinces and seal immediately.

Lay the prunes in white wine for two days; then put on a wire sieve to drip, but do not squeeze them. When they look dry, which will be in about half an hour, lay in glass jars with alternate layers of sugar and stick cinnamon and a few pieces of mace and a very few cloves. When the jars are full, fill up with cognac and seal. Set in the sunniest place you can find for three days.