It is best to defer making this sweetmeat (which will be found
very fine) till late in the season when lemons are ripe and are to
be had in plenty. Pumpkins (as they keep well) can generally be
procured at any time through the winter.
Take a fine pumpkin, of a rich deep colour, pare off the outer
rind; remove the seeds; and having sliced the best part, cut it
into chips of equal size, and about as thick as a half dollar.
They should be in long narrow pieces, two inches in breadth, and
six in length. It is best to prepare the pumpkin the day before;
and having weighed the chips, allow to each pound of them a pound
of the best loaf-sugar. You must have several dozen of fine ripe
lemons, sufficient to furnish a jill of lemon-juice to each pound
of pumpkin. Having rolled them under your hand on a table, to make
them yield as much juice as possible, pare off the yellow rind and
put it away for some other purpose. Then having cut the lemons,
squeeze out all the juice into a pitcher. Lay the pumpkin chips in
a large pan or tureen, strewing the sugar among them. Then having
measured the lemon-juice in a wine-glass, (two common wine-glasses
making one jill,) pour it over the pumpkin and sugar, cover the
vessel, and let it stand all night.
Next day transfer the pumpkin, sugar, and lemon-juice to n
preserving kettle, and boil it slowly three quarters of an hour,
or till the pumpkin becomes all through tender, crisp, and
transparent; but it must not be over the fire long enough to break
and lose its form. You must skim it thoroughly. Some very small
pieces of the lemon-paring may be boiled with it. When you think
it is done, take up the pumpkin chips in a perforated skimmer that
the syrup may drain through the holes back into the kettle. Spread
the chips to cool on large dishes, and pass the syrup through a
flannel bag that has been first dipped in hot water. When the
chips are cold, put them into glass jars or tumblers, pour in the
syrup, and lay on the top white paper dipped in brandy. Then tie
up the jars with leather, or with covers of thick white paper.
If you find that when cold the chips are not perfectly clear,
crisp, and tender, give them another boil in the syrup before you
put them up.
This, if well made, is a handsome and excellent sweetmeat It need
not be eaten with cream, the syrup being so delicious as to
require nothing to improve it. Shells of puff-paste first baked
empty, and then filled with, pumpkin chips, will be found very
nice.
Musk-melon chips may be done in the same manner.