Apple Sauce

Put a quart of water in a porcelain saucepan, with two cups of white sugar, and half a lemon sliced, or a stick of cinnamon. When it has boiled about five minutes, add as many apples, pared and quartered, as the syrup will receive. Stew gently until they are tender, and look clear, but do not stir them. Take up carefully with a skimmer. Spitzenberg apples are especially nice for this sauce; but russets, or any solid sour apple, are very good.

Steamed Sweet Apples

Wash and wipe a pailful of sweet apples; put them into a porcelain kettle, with cold water enough to come half-way toward the top, cover them and boil them slowly as possible an hour. Then try them with a fork, and turn down the upper side of those which lie on the top. If they are considerably softened, scatter a coffee-cup of brown sugar over them, cover them close, and let them remain boiling another hour. Very large apples need half an hour more.

Baked Sweet Apples

If they are of a good kind, they are very nice baked in an earthen dish, which is better than tin. If you cook them in a stove, there should be a little water in the pan, else the juice will burn and be lost. They are best done in a brick oven. Put them into a jar with no water or sugar, but cover them close, and bake five or six hours. A rich syrup will be found in the bottom of the jar, and the appearance and flavor of the apples will be very fine.

Baked Sour Apples

These are best baked in a stove. They require only an hour. There should be a little water in the dish. Just before they are done, sprinkle a little brown sugar upon them, dip the syrup over them, and cover them close till wanted for the table. They are good done in this way to eat at breakfast or tea; and also at dinner, with any meat requiring apple sauce. Take out the cores before baking them if you choose.

Boiled Cider Apple-Sauce

Take apples, sweet and sour together, that will not keep long, and pare a large quantity. When finished, wash and put them into a bright brass kettle, in which you have turned down an old dish or large plate, that will nearly cover the bottom; this is to prevent the apple from burning. After you have put in all the apples, pour in a quart of cider (boiled as directed in the receipt for boiled cider) to every pailful of apples. After it has boiled an hour or two, add molasses in the proportion of two quarts to every four pails of apples. If you have refuse quinces, a peck of them gives a fine flavor to a large kettle of apple-sauce. The best way to boil apple-sauce is to put the kettle over the fire at night, and let the apple become partly done before bed-time. When you leave it for the night, see that the fire lies in such a way, that all parts of the apple boil equally, and that no brands can fall.* Burn charcoal or peat if you have it; as either of these will make a steady fire, and may be left without danger from snapping. The chief things to be observed, are, that there is not too much fire, that it lies safely, and that it will afford a moderate heat several hours. In the morning the apple-sauce will be of a fine red color, and must then be put away in firkins or stone jars. Never use potter's ware for this purpose.

Sweet Apple Marmalade

This is made by boiling sweet apples alone, in cider made of sweet apples, and boiled down so as to be very rich. The sauce is in this case strained warm through a very coarse sieve or riddle, and boiled again a little while; or it may be put into deep dishes and set into the oven after the bread is drawn.

Coddled Apples

Take fair early apples, wipe them, lay them in a preserving kettle, and put to half a peck a coffee-cup of brown sugar, and half a pint of water. Cover them and boil them gently, until they are tender and penetrated with the sugar.

* As the open fire-place is now seldom in use, these directions will not often be apropos. But where a range or coal stove is used, a large kettle of apple-sauce can, with care, be done well, on the top with the cover under it.

They may be done quite as well in a jar in the oven, but care must be taken that they are not cooked too much. Early apples will bake with a very moderate heat.

Common Family Apple-Sauce

Let your stock of apples be picked over several times in the course of the winter, and all the defective ones taken out. Let the good parts of these be pared, and if not used for pies, be made into apple-sauce. Boil it in a preserving kettle. After it is tender, add sugar to your taste, and boil it gently fifteen minutes longer. Towards spring, when apples somewhat lose their taste, the flavor will be improved by adding the juice and rind of lemon.