Core and peel neatly six sound, fine New-town apples. Put into a saucepan with a gill of water and two ounces of sugar. Place it on a hot stove, put the lid on, and let cook for ten minutes. Meanwhile boil four ounces of rice in a pint and a half of milk, with half a saltspoonful of salt. Flavor it with six drops of orange-flower water, and let cook for twelve minutes. Place the cooked apples in a square tin pan, pour the boiled rice over them, and put into a moderate oven for ten minutes. Then have a hot dessert-dish ready, and with a tinned cake-turner dress them carefully on the dish, decorating the sides with the rice. Should a pyramidal shape be desired, place three apples in the centre, two on top of these, and the last one above them all, then fill up the empty space around them with the rice, and serve with half a pint of vanilla syrup in a separate sauce-bowl.

The sauce is made thus : put two pounds of granulated sugar into a saucepan with one quart of cold water, and set it on the hot stove. Stir well for two minutes ; add two vanilla-beans split in halves, and boil for ten minutes longer. Remove from the fire ; strain through a sieve into another vessel, and use when required. This syrup, when cold, may be poured into bottles, and if corked tightly and put away in a cool place, will keep in good condition for a month at least.