APPLES
I. When served whole, apples should be carefully washed and rubbed to a high polish with a crash towel. Only perfect fruit should be served in this way, and green leaves in the fruit bowl are especially desirable. Fruit-knives are essential.
II. Pare, quarter, and core good eating apples, removing all imperfections. Serve a few quarters on each plate, with or without sugar. A sprinkle of cinnamon or lemon-juice will improve fruit which has little flavor. A grating of nutmeg may also be used.
III. À la Condé.—Pare, quarter, and core good cooking apples. Arrange in rows in an earthen baking-dish, sprinkle with powdered sugar and lemon-juice, pour a little water into the baking-dish, and add a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Bake slowly, basting frequently with the apple-juice and melted butter. When tender, take out, drain, and cool, saving the juice. Serve with boiled rice or other cereal, using the juice instead of milk.
IV. À la Cherbourg.—Pare and core good cooking apples; halve or quarter if desired. Cook slowly in a thin syrup flavored with lemon-peel and a bit of ginger-root. Serve separately or with cereal.
V. À la Fermière.—Pare and core the apples and arrange in a well-buttered baking-dish. Sprinkle slightly with sugar and cinnamon; baste often with melted butter, and serve with boiled rice or other cereal, using the juice instead of milk.
VI. À la Française.—Core and then peel tart apples. Put into cold water from half an inch to an inch in depth, sprinkle with sugar, cover tightly, and cook very slowly on the back part of the range till tender. Flavorings already noted may be added at pleasure. Skim out the apples, reduce the remaining syrup one-half by rapid boiling, pour over the apples, and cool. Serve cold, with or without cereal.
VII. À la Ninon.—Sprinkle baked apples with freshly grated cocoanut on taking from the oven. Serve on a mound of boiled rice with the milk of the cocoanut.
VIII. À la Réligieuse.—Core cooking apples; score the skin deeply in a circle all around the fruit. Sprinkle a little sugar in the cores, and dissolve a little currant jelly in the water used for the basting. Cook slowly, and baste once with melted butter. The peel is supposed to rise all around the apple, like a veil—hence the name.
IX. Baked.—Peel or not, as preferred. Sprinkle with melted butter and sugar, baste now and then with hot water, and serve separately or with cereal.