Part 43

1 Pint of boiling water. 1 Cup of sugar. ⅓ Cup of lemon-juice.

Boil the water and sugar together without stirring for twenty minutes. You will thus obtain a thin sugar syrup, which, however, has enough viscousness to entangle and hold air when beaten. As soon as it is cool, add the lemon-juice, strain, and freeze it. This makes a snow-white sherbet of very delicate flavor. Lemon sherbet may also be made with water, sugar, lemon-juice, and the whites of eggs well beaten, instead of with gelatine or syrup.

ORANGE SHERBET

1 Tablespoon of gelatine. 1 Cup of boiling water. 1 Cup of sugar. 1 Cup of orange-juice. Juice of one lemon. 2 Tablespoons of brandy.

Soak the gelatine in just enough cold water to moisten it, for half an hour. Then pour over it the cup of boiling water, and put in the other ingredients in the order in which they are written; when the sugar is dissolved, strain all through a fine wire strainer, and freeze it.

=To get Orange-juice.= Peel the oranges, cut them in small pieces, quarters or eighths, put them into a jelly-bag or napkin, and press out the juice with the hand. By this means the oil of the rind, which has a disagreeable flavor, is excluded.

APRICOT ICE

1 Quart of apricots. 1 Quart of water. ½ Quart of sugar. 3 Tablespoons of brandy.

Either fresh or canned apricots may be used for this ice. If fresh ones are chosen, wash and wipe them carefully, cut them into small pieces, mash them with a potato-masher until broken and soft, and add the water, sugar, and brandy; then freeze. The treatment is the same if canned fruit be used. This ice may be made without the brandy, but it is a valuable addition, especially for the sick.

Peaches, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, and in fact any soft, well-flavored fruit may be made into water-ice by following exactly the above rule, except, of course, substituting the different kinds of fruits for the apricots, and possibly varying the sugar. If pineapple is selected, it should be chopped quite fine, and quickly, so that the knife will not discolor it. Peaches should be pared, and strawberries and raspberries carefully washed. All of these ices are delicious, and most wholesome and grateful in very warm weather, or for feverish conditions when fruit is allowed. If there is a question about seeds, as might be the case in using strawberries, strain the fruit through a coarse wire strainer after it is mashed; it is advisable to do this always in making strawberry, raspberry, or pineapple ice.

COOKED FRUITS

BAKED TART APPLES

Select fair, sound, tart apples. Wash and wipe them, and cut out the cores with an apple-corer, being careful to remove everything that is not clear pulp. Sometimes the tough husk which surrounds the seeds extends farther than the instrument will reach with once cutting; this can be detected by looking into the apple, and removing with the point of the corer anything that remains. If there are dark blotches or battered places on the outside of the apple, cut them off. Everything of that kind is valueless as food, and injures the flavor of that which is good.

When they are prepared place the apples in an earthen baking dish (granite-ware will do), put a teaspoon of sugar and half an inch of dried lemon-peel, or fresh peel cut very thin, into each hole, pour boiling water into the dish until it is an inch deep, and bake in a moderately hot oven; when the skins begin to shrink and the apples are perfectly soft all the way through, they are done; then take them from the oven, arrange them in a glass dish, and pour around them the syrupy juice that is left.

The time for baking varies, according to the species of apple, from half an hour to two hours. They should be basted once or twice during the time with the water which is around them. It will nearly all evaporate while they are baking. If the apples are Baldwins, or Greenings, or any others of fine flavor, the lemon-peel may be omitted. Stick cinnamon may be used instead of lemon-peel for apples which are not quite sour.

BAKED SWEET APPLES

Prepare sweet apples according to the foregoing rule, except use a fourth of a square inch of cinnamon instead of the lemon-peel, and half a teaspoon of sugar for each apple. Sweet apples require two or three hours' baking. They should be cooked until perfectly soft, and until the juice which oozes out becomes gelatinous. Serve cold with sweet cream. Cooked apples are an excellent addition to a diet. They contain acids and salts of great value.

STEWED APPLES

Pare and quarter three slightly sour apples. Put them into a saucepan with a cup of water and two tablespoons of sugar, and stew gently until they are soft, but not broken. Each piece should be whole, but soft and tender. A tablespoon of lemon-juice put in just before they are taken from the fire is a good addition to make if the apples are poor in flavor; or, lemon-peel may be used, and also cinnamon and cloves.

APPLE COMPOTE

Wash and wipe some fair, well-flavored apples (not sweet). Core them with an apple-corer (not a knife), being careful not to leave in any of the hulls, which sometimes penetrate far into the fruit; pare them evenly, so that they will be smooth and of good shape. Then boil them gently, in water enough to just reach their tops, with a square inch or two of thin lemon-peel, and a teaspoon of sugar for each apple, until they are soft, but not broken, watching them carefully toward the last part of the cooking, lest they go to pieces. When done lift them out into a glass dish, reduce the water by further boiling until it is somewhat syrupy, and set it aside to cool. Fill the holes with apple, grape, or any bright-colored jelly, and when the syrup is cold pour it over and around the apples.

STEWED PRUNES

1 Pint of prunes. 1½ Pints of water. ¼ Cup of sugar. 2 Tablespoons of lemon-juice.

Soak the prunes in warm water for fifteen minutes, to soften the dust and dirt on the outside. Then wash them carefully with the fingers, rejecting those that feel granular (they are worm-eaten); stew them gently in the sugar and water in a covered saucepan for two hours. Just before taking them from the fire put in the lemon-juice. They should be plump, soft, and tender to the stone. As the water evaporates the amount should be restored, so that there will be as much at the end as at the beginning of the cooking. French prunes may not require quite so long time for cooking as most ordinary kinds.

CRANBERRY SAUCE AND JELLY

Pick out the soft and decayed ones from a quantity of Cape cranberries; measure a pint, and put with it half the bulk of sugar, and one fourth the bulk of water. Stew the berries ten minutes without stirring, counting the time from the moment when they are actually bubbling. Done in this way, the skins will be tender, and the juice on cooling will form a delicate jelly. Or, the fruit may be pressed through a soup-strainer and the whole made into jelly.

GRAPE SAUCE

Take any small quantity of grapes. Wash them by dipping each bunch several times in water, unless you know that they have been gathered and handled by clean hands. Separate the skins from the pulps by squeezing each grape between the fingers and thumb. Cook the pulps about five minutes, or until soft and broken. Cook the skins for the same length of time in a separate saucepan, then press the pulps through a strainer into them, until there is nothing left but the seeds. Measure the mixture, and for each measure, pint or cup, as the case may be, add half a measure of sugar, and simmer for five minutes. Many invalids who cannot eat grapes uncooked, on account of the seeds, may take them stewed in this way. More or less than the above amount of sugar may be used, according to the requirements of the individual.