Bags for boiling dumplings or puddings, should be made of thick cotton cloth. Before using dip in water, wring out and flour inside. When the dumpling or pudding is put in, tie the bag tight, leaving plenty of room for the contents to swell. Indian and flour puddings require a great deal of space.

An old plate should be put at the bottom of the kettle to pre-vent the bag sticking.

Dumplings or puddings, when they have been in the water a few minutes, should be turned to prevent settling and heaviness.

Water should be kept of a sufficient depth in the kettle to cover the pudding. It should not be allowed to stop boiling for an instant.

Dip the bag in cold water for an instant when done, and the dumpling or pudding will come out easily.

Steaming is really an easier and preferable way of cooking either puddings or dumplings. Set a plate in the bottom of the steamer if a bag is used instead of a pudding dish. Place the dumplings or pudding nicely tied up on this, and keep the water in the kettle beneath boiling constantly. One economy in this case is that vegetables or meat may be cooked in the kettle while the pudding is being steamed. Prepare the cloth or bag in the same way as for boiling.

Basing is also resorted to in the preparation of dumplings.

Dumpling Crust

2 cupfuls sweet milk.

1 saltspoonful salt.

2 tablespoonfuls lard or butter.

1 teaspoonful soda.

2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. Flour to make a soft dough.

Water may be used with the addition of 1 or 2 well beaten eggs, using the other materials in the same manner.

Suet Crust

½ pound chopped beef suet. ¾ pound flour. 1 saltspoonful salt. Cold water to make a dough. Work it well. Beat with the rolling pin and roll out. Nice for any boiled fruit pudding.

Boiled Apple Dumplings

Pare tart mellow apples. Remove the cores with an apple corer, or a small, sharp knife. Fill the openings with sugar. Make a good pie crust. Roll out 2/3 of an inch thick. Cut in squares just large enough to enclose 1 apple. Lay the apples on them and bring the corners together. Tie each one in a small floured cloth, leaving room to swell. Drop in boiling water and let cook one hour. Serve with pudding sauce, or butter and sugar. A biscuit crust, either baking powder or soda, may be substituted for the pie-crust paste. Molasses is a very nice sauce for apple dumplings.

Baked Apple Dumplings

Prepare a crust after the recipe given for dumpling crust. Boll out, cut in squares and in the center of each lay a tart apple pared, cored and quartered, bring the corners together closely. Lay in a deep buttered baking tin with the joined edges down. Pour a cupful of water around them, ½ cupful of sugar and dot the top plentifully with bits of butter. Bake in the oven until done. Serve as they are, the butter, sugar and water making a nice sauce. A variation may be made by working a little butter into raised bread dough, rolling out thin and enclosing an apple, as above, in each dumpling. They may be either baked or boiled.