If properly cooked, dried fruits are a delicious and convenient form of fruit for winter use. Comparatively few people, however, cook dried fruits properly, and the result is a strong prejudice against them. At a time when the preservation of all food is so essential, and containers are so increasingly scarce, dried fruit comes to its own.

It should be used freely: for breakfast fruit, for luncheon and supper desserts, for ices and sherbets, and for other dinner desserts. Often a combination of two fruits makes a pleasant variety; as dried apples and raisins, or prunes and apricots.

Wash fruit thoroughly in cold water; drain. Add cold water to cover, and let soak from one to three days in a cold place; the drier and harder the fruit, the longer the time required for soaking. Bring slowly to the boiling point, and without stirring cook in double boiler or in fireless cooker two or more hours, or until fruit is perfectly tender, but unbroken. Sprinkle sugar or syrup over top of fruit, and cook twenty or thirty minutes longer; do not stir. A little salt added to the water before cooking is often an improvement; add lemon, spices, or other seasoning at same time if used. Corn syrup may be used in place of part or all of the sugar. Sweet, well-ripened fruits require little or no sugar. If the juice is watery and flavorless after cooking the fruit, turn it into a separate saucepan, and boil down to desired consistency.