Cantaloupe Preserves
Take perfectly green cantaloupes, as late in the season as possible. If preserved while the weather is very hot they are apt to ferment. Scrape the outer skin off the rind. Cut them through the middle. Remove the seeds, and cut the melon in any shape preferred. Soak them in salt and water over night, then in clear water four or five hours, changing the water several times. Then soak in alum water an hour. Rinse and put over to cook in water enough to cover, with a handful of peach leaves (if convenient) to 5 pounds of melon, and a tablespoonful of ginger tied up in a cloth. The peach leaves turn the melon green, besides adding to its flavor. Boil the melons until you can pierce them with a straw. Make a syrup of white sugar, pound for pound. Add enough water to keep from burning. Let boil and skim. Put in the fruit and the ginger, and boil it in the syrup as long as can be done without breaking the rinds. If then is not enough syrup to cover add a little water. When cold tie up in jars. In the course of a week pour off the syrup, scald and turn back over the fruit. Add sufficient essence of lemon to flavor it before turning back into the jars. A fresh lemon may be sliced into the jars when cold, 1 lemon to 2 or 3 pounds of the melon.