Confitures De Prunes

"Take whichever plums you deem suitable, such as damsons, greengages, mirabelles, or other varieties; blanch them. When they are quite soft to the touch, remove them with a skimmer and place them in cold water. Clarify five pounds of sugar for a hundred plums; put the plums in a very clean container, one by one, so they do not get crushed, and add your sugar, which should be slightly more than lukewarm. Every day, morning and evening, for four or five days, drain your plums on a sieve, boil your sugar—skimming it each time—and put your plums back in the container, with the sugar poured over them, always a little more than lukewarm. Your greengages must stay green and the other plums should keep their color. In the end, if you see that your sugar has not thickened enough into syrup during the last cooking, boil it sufficiently, adding two glasses of water to remove the scum; then pour it, still boiling, over your plums."

Written in precise but conversational French, the original text assumes practical familiarity with kitchen processes—hence short instructions and much left implicit. Quantities were typically given by the cent (100) or by weight, as with 'cinq livres de sucre' (about 2.25 kg for 100 plums), aligning with pre-metric French standards. Clarification tips and gentle handling reflect the period's emphasis on preserving both beauty and flavor of fruits. The term 'blanchir' referred to light poaching, and 'dégraisser' signified skimming off impurities for syrup clarity. Spellings and phrasing are period-appropriate, sometimes omitting articles or using descriptive names for fruits now seen less often in markets.