wing proportion and with the piece of cinnamon that was
already immersed in the cherries: Twelve pounds of liquid to sixteen
pounds of sugar and two ounces of citric acid, or three parts of liquid
to four of sugar and the citric acid as in the above proportion.

Before putting in the sugar and the citric acid wait until the liquid is
quite hot, just before boiling. Then stir continually. The boiling must
be brief, four or five minutes are sufficient to incorporate the sugar
in the liquid.

When removing the syrup from the fire, put it in an earthen vase and
bottle when quite cold. Cork the bottles well and keep in a cool place.

213

ORGEAT

(Orzata)

Sweet almonds with 10 or 12 bitter ones, seven ounces.
Water, one and half pounds.
Granulated sugar, two pounds.

Skin the almonds and grind them very fine, or better pound them in a
mortar, moistening from time to time with orange flower water, of which
you will use about two tablespoonfuls.

When the almonds have been reduced to a paste, dissolve the latter in
one third of the water and filter the juice through a cheese cloth,
squeezing hard. Put the paste, back in the grinder or in the mortar,
grind or pound again, then filter again with another third of the water.
Repeat the same operation for a third time, then put on the fire the
liquid so obtained and just before boiling put the sugar, mix, stir and
boil for about twenty minutes. Let it cool, then bottle and keep in a
cool place. The orgeat does not ferment and the thick liquid may be
diluted in water, half an inch for a whole tumbler of iced water.

PRESERVES

214

APRICOT MARMALADE

(Conserva di albicocche)

Use good and ripe apricots. It is a mistake to believe that jam or
marmalade can be obtained with any kind of fruit. Take off the stones,
put them on the fire without water and while they boil, stir with a
ladle to reduce them to pulp. When they have boiled for about half an
hour, rub them through a sieve to separate the pulp of the fruit from
the skins that are to be thrown away, then put them back on the fire
with granulated sugar in the proportion of eight tenths, that is to say
eight pounds of sugar for ten pounds of apricot pulp. Stir often with
the ladle until the mixture acquires the firmness of marmalade, which
will be known by putting from time to time a teaspoonful in a plate and
seeing that it flows slowly.

When ready, remove from the fire, let it cool, and then pu