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Presents:
Candy Making Recipes
from Mrs. Harding's
Twentieth Century
Cookbook - Printed 1921
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Orange, Candied
Peel large, sweet oranges and divide carefully into lobes, removing the white
inner skin. Boil together three cups of sugar and one of water, as directed for
other candied fruits, and after the sirup reaches the brittle stage add to it the juice
of a lemon. Dip the sections of orange into this and lay on waxed paper to dry.
Nuts Dipped or Glazed
These may be prepared by either recipe and are dipped as fruits would be. Blanch
almonds, divide the kernels of English walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans, peel
chestnuts and roast them very lightly; and remove from Brazil nuts all the dark
inner skin.
Peach Leather
Small peaches may be used for this, but they should be unspecked. Wash them
carefully, rubbing all the fuzz from them, cut in half and remove the stones, and put
the fruit over the fire to stew, allowing a quarter pound of sugar to every pound of
the peaches. Cook until soft, stirring and mashing it as it simmers, and when it
reaches the consistency when it can be spread out on a board in a thin sheet turn
it out on platters or on a board well greased with butter, and set the "leather" in the
hot sun to dry. Protect it from the flies and other insects by fine netting or by panes
of glass. When dry it can be rolled up. Sprinkle it lightly with granulated sugar
before rolling, then dip the rolls into sugar. Wrap in waxed paper and then in a
cloth, and the sweetmeat will keep indefinitely.
Perhaps this might not have quite the flavor to others that it possesses for the
Virginians who learned to love it in childhood, but I think that even the grown-ups
who eat it for the first time will find the taste pleasing and with a reminiscence of
the ripe peach aroma about it that cannot be found in more elaborate candies.
Stuffed Raisins
For this purpose buy the finest layer raisins. Pick them from the stem and lay them
in cold water for several hours, so that they may plump and soften. Make a little
incision with a small, sharp penknife or a pair of scissors and slip out the seeds.
Prepare such a fruit mixture as directed for' stuffed prunes, and insert tiny rolls of
this in the raisins. Or you may use single fruits or nuts-a sliver of almond, a shred
of citron or candied ginger, or anything else of the kind-and put them in. A good
plan is to sort the raisins into two sizes, fill the smaller with such stuffing as I have
described, and slip these into the larger raisins. In either case, roll the raisin -the
outer one-in granulated sugar and lay in boxes lined with waxed paper.
Strawberry Sweetmeats
Hull fresh ripe strawberries and sprinkle them with granulated sugar in the
proportion of a cup of this to every pound of fruit and let them stand in this for four
hours. Drain the sirup from the berries at the end of this time and put it over the
fire in a preserving kettle; bring to a boil, and drop the berries into it. Leave them
in only until the sirup regains its boil, then take them out with a perforated skimmer
and spread the berries on flat dishes. Place these in the sun and leave them out
all day, protecting them by netting. At night bring them in, and the next morning
turn the fruit over and give it another sunning. If one day more does not dry them
sufficiently, supply a further sun treatment. Pack them in glass jars, alternating the
layers of fruit with strewings of sugar. Peach Sweetmeats may be made in the
same way.
Quince Leather
This may be made like the Peach Leather, but there must be added to it the rind
and juice of a lemon for every three pounds of the fruit, or else a couple of ounces
of green ginger in the same proportion. It is good, but not equal to the Peach
Leather.
Stuffed Prunes
Select the large prunes for this and lay them in cold water for three hours. Then
put them in the steamer and cook until the skins are tender. Slip out the stones.
Have a mixture made of candied fruits-ginger, cherries, dates, fig, what you
will-chopped fine with an equal quantity of English walnuts, pecans, or blanched
almonds. Fill with this the spaces left vacant by the stones, restoring the prunes as
nearly as you may to their natural shape, roll them in granulated sugar, and put
them aside to become thoroughly dry and firm before eating them.
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