To Dry or Preserve Mogul Plums in Syrup

Instructions

1. Pare the plums, but do not remove the stalks or stones.
2. Take their weight of dry sifted sugar, lay them into a deep dish or bowl, and strew it over them; let them remain thus for a night.
3. Then pour them gently into a preserving-pan with all the sugar, heat them slowly, and let them just simmer for five minutes.
4. In two days repeat the process, and do so again and again at an interval of two or three days, until the fruit is tender and very clear.
5. Put it then into jars, and keep it in the syrup, or drain and dry the plums very gradually, as directed for other fruit.
6. When they are not sufficiently ripe for the skin to part from them readily, they must be covered with spring water, placed over a slow fire, and just scalded until it can be stripped from them easily.
7. They may also be entirely prepared by the receipt for dried apricots which follows, a page or two from this.