Plums, and take them from the fire, and cover them, and let them rest
for the space of a quarter of an hour; then take them up, and when your
other skillet of water doth boil, put them into it; let them but stay in
it a very little while, and so let the other skillet of water, wherein
they were first boiled, be set to the fire again, and make it to boil,
and put in your Plums as before, and then you shall see them rivet over,
and yet your Plums very whole; then while they be hot, you must with
your knife scrape away the riveting; then take to every pound of Plums a
pound and two ounces of Sugar finely beaten, then set a pan with a
little fair water on the fire, and when it boils, put in your Plums, and
let them settle half a quarter of an hour till you see the colour wax
green, then set them off the fire a quarter of an hour, and take a
handful of Sugar that is weighed, and strow it in the bottom of the pan
wherein you will preserve, and so put in your Plums one by one, drawing
the liquor from them, and cast the rest of your Sugar on them; then set
the pan on a moderate fire, letting them boil continually but very
softly, and in three quarters of an hour they will be ready, as you may
perceive by the greenness of your Plums, and thickness of your syrup,
which if they be boiled enough, will gelly when it is cold; then take up
your Plums, and put them into a Gallipot, but boil your Syrup a little
longer, then strain it into some vessel, and being blood-warm, pour it
upon your plums, but stop not the pot before they be cold. Note also you
must preserve them in such a pan, as they may lye one by another, and
turn of themselves; and when they have been five or six days in the
syrup, that the syrup grow thin, you may boil it again with a little
Sugar, but put it not to your Plums till they be cold. They must have
three scaldings, and one boiling.