CANTELOPES OR MUSK-MELONS.

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.