"Bring me berries or such cooling fruit as the kind, hospitable woods provide." - Cowper.

Any fresh fruit may be cooked in the fireless cooker. Boil it over the fire a few minutes and let stand in the cooker a number of hours, depending upon the variety. Fruit will retain its original shape by this method. When carefully lifted into a dish or can it presents a most inviting appearance. Use rather less water than when evaporation occurs from boiling over the fire by the old way.

After being washed, dried fruits should stand several hours in the water in which they are to be cooked before being put on the stove. Sugar may be put into the fruit while it is heating; and usually, the fruit may remain in the cooker over night.

Fruits intended for preserves, jams, and marmalades should be made as dry as possible. When the sugar is melted into them and the mixture is boiling, the long cooking may take place in the box. This saves the long, wearisome stirring over the fire, and insures perfect cooking, with no danger of burning. The full value of the fire-less cooker in cooking and canning fruits can be revealed to no one who does not prove it to herself by trial and experiment.

Preserved Apples

Pare and cut into halves six large, smooth apples and carefully take out the cores. Boil together two cups of sugar and one cup of water.

Skim the syrup and into it put the apples. Boil five minutes over the fire and remove to the cooker for three hours. Then slice into them one lemon, squeezing in the juice. If a stronger flavor of the lemon is desired, it may be sliced into the apple before it is cooked.

The apples may be left a much longer time in the cooker and in that case they will become darker and of a richer flavor.

Apple Relish

Quarter five apples, remove the core, and leave the skin on. Melt together one cup of sugar, two tablespoons of butter, and two tablespoons of water. Lay in the pieces of apple, peel side up. Cover, heat, and place in a cooker an hour or longer.

Apple Sauce

Pare and quarter eight good cooking apples. Add two cups of water and one of sugar. Boil five minutes and place in the cooker five hours.

Apricots

Soak one pound of dried apricots for several hours in cold water. Remove all the skin that can be conveniently pulled off. Drain and add lemon and sugar to taste. Cover with water. Boil five minutes and consign to the cooker. Let remain an hour or longer. Dried peaches may be cooked in the same way.

Orange Marmalade

One dozen oranges. Wash well with a vegetable brush and prick several times with a fork. Put into a kettle and cover with water. Place the lid on the kettle and boil fifteen minutes and place in the cooker for all night. In the morning take the oranges from the water. Remove the seeds and the white pithy portions. Then cut in two, squeeze slightly and run through the meat grinder, saving all of the juice. To each cupful of pulp use one cup of granulated sugar. If a bitter taste is desired use the water in which the oranges were boiled, one-fourth of a cup to every cup of pulp. Cook over fire until reduced to the proper consistency.