§ XXX.
Fruits and their Juices.
Fruits and their juices require the utmost celerity in the preparatory process, and particularly in the application of heat to the water-bath.
The fruit which is to be preserved either whole or in quarters, ought not to be completely ripe, because it dissolves in the water-bath. In like manner it should not be gathered either at the commencement or the end of the season. The first and the last of the crop have neither the fine flavour, nor the perfume of those which are gathered in the heighth of the season, that is, when the greater part of the crop of each species is ripe at the same period.