Take very small cantelopes before they are ripe. Shave a thin
paring off the whole outside. Cut out a small piece or plug about
an inch square, and through it extract all the seeds, &c. from the
middle. Then, return the plugs to the hole from whence you took
them, and secure them with a needle and thread, or by tying a
small string round the cantelope.
Lay the cantelopes for four or five hours in salt and water. Then
put them into spring water to extract the salt, changing the water
till you find it salt no longer. Scald them in weak alum-water.
Make a syrup in the proportion of a pint of water to a pound of
loaf-sugar, and boil the cantelopes in it till a straw will go
through them. Then take them out, and set them in the sun to
harden.
Prepare some fine ripe oranges, paring off the yellow rind very
thin, and cutting it into slips, and then laying it in scalding
water to extract the bitterness. Cut the oranges into pieces;
allow a pint of water to each orange, and boil them to a pulp.
Afterwards strain them, and allow to each pint of the liquid, a
pound of the best loaf-sugar, and stir in a little beaten white of
egg; one white to four pounds of sugar. This is for the second
syrup. Boil the peel in it, skimming it well. When the peel is
soft, take it all out; for if left among the cantelopes, it will
communicate to it too strong a taste of the orange.
Put the cantelopes into your jars, and pour over them the hot
syrup. Cover them closely, and keep them in a dry cool place.
Large cantelopes may be prepared for preserving (after you have
taken off the outer rind) by cutting them into pieces according to
the natural divisions with which they are fluted. This receipt for
preserving cantelopes whole, will do very well for green lemons or
limes, substituting lemon-peel and lemon-juice for that of oranges
in the second syrup.
You may use some of the first syrup to boil up the pulp of the
orange or lemons that has been left. It will make a sort of
marmalade, that is very good for colds.