Cold Custard.—Warm one quart of milk as warm as when just milked; sweeten and flavor to suit your taste; stir into it two table-spoonfuls of rennet wine, and turn it at once into the dish in which it is to be sent to table.
Baked Apples.—Core some Baldwin pippins, or any other fine-flavored tart apple. Sprinkle sugar on the bottom of a deep dish, and set the apples into the dish with two or three on top. Fill the holes with sugar; cover the lower apples with water, and bake one hour. A little cinnamon, nutmeg, or lemon will be an improvement for those who like fruit seasoned.
Apple Snow.—Stew some fine-flavored sour apples tender, sweeten to taste; strain them through a fine wire sieve, and break into one pint of strained apples the white of an egg; whisk the apple and egg very briskly, till quite stiff, and it will be as white as snow; eaten with a nice boiled custard, it makes a very desirable dessert.
Season with a very little nutmeg and cinnamon, add a little butter, and bake in good pastry, and you will have a very good apple pie.
PRESERVES AND JELLIES.
To Can Peaches.—We find the following mode of canning peaches in “Tilton’s Journal of Horticulture,” published in Boston. That journal is always so reliable, that we have no hesitation in giving these directions to our readers: “Take large ripe peaches,—not over-ripe,—halve and pare neatly and lay on a large meat-dish. To a three-peck basket of fruit allow four pounds of sifted sugar; sprinkle it over the fruit as you lay it in the dish; when done set it in a cool place overnight; the next morning fit each piece, one by one, nicely into the jar, draining them from the juice. When the jars are all filled put them close together in a kettle of cold water, putting a double towel or something of the kind under them, in the bottom of the kettle, to prevent their cracking, and set over the fire. Let the water heat gradually till it boils, while you prepare the syrup from the juice that has been formed from the peaches and sugar overnight, then fill up the jars with it, being careful to let the bubbles of air escape; they will be seen rising to the top; if any are in the lower part of the jar they will rush up on the insertion of a fork. When all are full begin to seal up, and have a large pan of hot water standing near to put the jars in as fast as sealed, where they can cool off gradually.
“Where one has glass jars or bottles, without tight-fitting covers, prepare a cement of one pound rosin to two pounds of mutton-suet, melted together and well mixed; have pieces of strong muslin cut large enough to tie over the mouths of the jars or bottles; lay the muslin on a board and with a spoon spread over a thick coating of cement; take up the muslin quickly, before it has time to cool, and put it on the jar with the cement side downward, pressing it closely over the sides. If the muslin is not very thick it is well to spread more cement on top of the first cover, and lay over that a second piece of muslin, then tie down with twine and finish with a good coat of cement over all. This is a good way to use up old jars whose covers have been broken or lost.”
Mixed Marmalade.—Apples or pears mixed with quince make very pleasant marmalade. They should be pared and cut in small pieces; just cover them with water, or boil the cores and skins first and use the liquor to boil the fruit in; stew the fruit till it can be mashed with a wooden spoon; when well mashed add the sugar, three fourths of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit (of course the fruit is weighed before beginning to cook); let it cook slowly for two or three hours, the longer it cooks the more solid it will be when cold. Pear, quince, and apple marmalade are made in the same way. With pears, if very mild, many add the juice and grated rind of lemons, to suit the taste, to the sugar.
Jellies.—In making jellies of apricots, quinces, peaches, apples, or plums, peel, remove the stones or cores, cut in pieces, cover with water and boil gently till well cooked; then strain the juice gently through a jelly-bag, and add a half-pint of sugar to a pint of juice (for berries a pound of sugar to a pint of juice); boil till it ropes from the spoon, or from fifteen to twenty minutes. In making raspberry jelly, use one third currants and two thirds raspberries.
Peach Jelly.—Cut peaches in half, peel them, and take out the pits from the stones; make a clear syrup of a pound of white sugar to half a teacup of water. When made and boiling hot put in the peaches and part of the pits,—too many pits give a bitter flavor,—boil gently ten minutes, then put half of the peaches on a platter, and boil the other half ten minutes longer; mix with the liquor of the peaches the strained juice of three lemons or oranges, and one ounce of isinglass or Cox’s gelatine, that has been first dissolved and strained; fill the molds half full of jelly, let it stand till set, then add the rest of the peaches, and fill the molds with jelly. One dozen peaches will make a good-sized moldful. It is a very handsome table ornament, and very palatable.