Dried Normandy pippins, 1 lb.; water, 1 quart; sugar, 6 oz.; 3 to 4 hours.
Obs.—These pippins, if stewed with care, will be converted into a rich confection: but they will be very good and more refreshing with less sugar. They are now exceedingly cheap, and may be converted into excellent second course dishes at small expense. Half a pound, as they are light and swell much in the stewing, will be sufficient to serve at once. Rinse them quickly with cold water, and then soak them for an hour in the pan in which they are to be stewed, in a quart of fresh water; place them by the side of the stove to heat gradually, and when they begin to soften add as much sugar as will sweeten them to the taste: they require but a small portion. Lemon-rind can be added to them at pleasure. We have many receipts for other ways of preparing them, to which we cannot now give place here. It answers well to bake them slowly in a covered jar. They may be served hot in a border of rice.
STEWED PRUNEAUX DE TOURS, OR TOURS DRIED PLUMS.
These plums, which resemble in form small dried Norfolk biffins, make a delicious compôte: they are also excellent served dry. In France they are stewed until tender in equal parts of water, and of the light red wine of the country, with about four ounces of sugar to the pound of fruit: when port wine is used for them a smaller proportion of it will suffice. The sugar should not be added in stewing any dried fruits until they are at least half-done, as they will not soften by any means so easily in syrup as in unsweetened liquid.
Dried plums, 1 lb.; water, 1/2 pint, and light claret, 1/2 pint, or water, 1/4 pint, and port wine, 1/4 pint: 1-1/2 hour. Sugar, 4 oz.: 2 hours, or more.
Obs.—Common French plums are stewed in the same way with or without wine. A little experience will teach the cook the exact quantity of liquid and of sugar which they require.
TO BAKE PEARS.
Wipe some large sound iron pears, arrange them on a dish with the stalk end upwards, put them into the oven after the bread is withdrawn, and let them remain all night. If well baked, they will be excellent, very sweet, and juicy, and much finer in flavour than those which are stewed or baked with sugar: the bon chrétien pear also is delicious baked thus.
STEWED PEARS.
Pare, cut in halves, and core a dozen fine pears, put them into a close shutting stewpan with some thin strips of lemon-rind, half a pound of sugar in lumps, as much water as will nearly cover them, and should a very bright colour be desired, a dozen grains of cochineal, bruised, and tied in a muslin; stew the fruit as gently as possible, four or five hours, or longer should it not be perfectly tender. Wine is sometimes added both to stewed pears and to baked ones. If put into a covered jar, well tied down and baked for some hours, with a proper quantity of liquid and sugar, they will be very good.