AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
) January, 
26 
Vicious preparation. Put it is when apples are 
getting old and withered, and are losing their fla¬ 
vor, that they need special care. The most com¬ 
mon errors in making sauce are using too much 
water, which renders the apples flavorless, cook¬ 
ing them so slowly that they become discolored and 
tough, and removing them from the stove before 
they are thoroughly cooked, thus leaving them 
hard and lumpy. I annex a few recipes which are 
well tried and proved, and always liked. 
Apple Sauce, No. 1. —Pare, core, and 
cut tart apples, put them in a basin with just water 
enough to keep them from burning, cover closely 
and cook quickly. When perfectly tender, stir them 
down, sweeten and turn out into a dish to cool. 
Apple Sauce, No. 2.— Wash, core, and 
cut out all imperfect places in the apples, but do 
not peel them. Proceed as above. When cooked, 
turn into a sieve, and when cool enough for your 
hand, rub them through. Sweeten and let cool. 
When apples are fresh and green, apple sauce needs 
no flavoring; but late in winter and during the 
spring, a few drops of lemon juice added to any 
preparation of apples, quite successfully counter¬ 
feits the natural acid of the fruit. 
Baked Sour Apples.— Greenings are the 
best. Put them into a deep baking-pan, sprinkle 
sugar over and around them, fill the pan half full 
of water and bake quickly. 
Baked Sweet Apples. —These require 
a slow flic. A little water in the pan is an im¬ 
provement, and a little-sugar, also, though they are 
very good without either. 
Preserved Apples. —Peel, core, and halve 
acid apples. Make a syrup of seven ounces of 
sugar to each pound of apples. Boil the apples 
slowly uutil lender, remove them from the syrup ; 
add to the syrup one lemon cut in slices, for each 
two pounds of apples, let it boil for twenty min¬ 
utes. Return the apples to the syrup, let them 
cook for two or three minutes, and put them up in 
air-tight cans to be used at pleasure. 
Apple Buiaipling'. — Make a crust of 1 
quart of flour, 2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, 1 
teaspoonful of soda, 1 tablespoonful of butter or 
lard, a little salt, and milk enough to make a dough 
that can be rolled out. Cut this dough in eight 
pieces, roll them out thin, put slices of sour ap¬ 
ple upon them, fold them up tight and steam or 
bake. Baking will require thirty minutes, steam¬ 
ing an hour. Either hard or liquid sauce may be 
used. The following is an excellent recipe for 
Liquid Saucc.-l cup of sugar and % cup 
of butter, rubbed to a cream. Tlieu stir in the 
well-beaten white of 1 egg. Flavor wilh nutmeg 
or lemon. Just before bringing to the table add 
X cup of boiling water. 
Apple l*ies to be good, should not be more 
than two days old, and to be in perfection, should 
be eaten when cool, the day they are made. The 
contents of an apple pie may be ever so good, but 
if enclosed in a tough envelope of crust, the result 
will be a poor pie. The making of good crust ap¬ 
pears to me as simple an operation as any in the 
culinary department. 
Pie Crust.. —A good rule is % of a teacupful 
of lard, well pressed down, to every 2 teacupluls 
of flour; a little salt, and only water enough to 
hold the ingredients together. This makes enough 
crust for one medium sized pie. Mix quickly and 
carelessly, not kneading at all.-For mince pies, 
from % of a cup to a whole cup of lard, is necessa¬ 
ry for every 2 cups of flour. This rule never fails 
to make good, crisp pie crust for me. 
Apple Pie, No. 1.— Slice peeled apples 
upon a pie plate, and cover wilh a crust. Do not 
press it down at the edge, but trim it off neatly. 
Bake quickly and thoroughly. Remove the crust, 
turn its upper side down upon another pic plate. 
Mash the apple, sweeten It to the taste, flavor with 
nutmeg, add a piece of butter the size of a hickory 
nut, and spread the mixture upon the crust. A 
iittlo sweetened cream poured upon this when 
eaUa, is delicious; or the pie may be made very 
nice by spreading the well-beaten and sweetened 
whites of 3 eggs over the top. In the latter case, 
the apple should be made very sweet. 
Apple I*ie, No. 2. —Proceed as in No. 1, 
but make an upper and an under crust. In this 
ease remove the upper crust when baked, sea¬ 
son and sweeten the apple, and cover again. 
Apple Pudding, No. 1.— 1 pint of stew¬ 
ed and sifted apple, 3 eggs, sugar to make it very 
sweet, X pint each of cream and milk, a little 
salt, nutmeg, and raisins. Bake with an under crust. 
Apple Pudding, No. 2. — 1 pint of cream 
and milk, half and half, 1 pint of sifted flour, a half 
dozen large apples, four eggs, a little salt. Peel 
the apples and take out the cores without break¬ 
ing the apples; steam them until tender, then put 
them into the pudding dish and pour the batter 
over them, and hake about 45 minutes. Eat with the 
liquid sauce, the recipe for which is given above. 
Modern Cooking.—Brown Bread. 
BY A MODERN HOUSEKEEPER. 
I have much sympathy for the “old-fogy,” who, 
in the. Agriculturist for last September, repeats the 
merited praises of the “bake-kettle.” That he 
tells nothing but the truth, my father can well at¬ 
test, for I have often heard him describe both the 
kettle and his mother’s “ brown bread.” Still, 
even if I had a genuine bake-kettle, I could never 
hope to get the good, sound, hickory wood, which 
our grandmothers used in such abundance to obtain 
living coals for their cooking and baking. So I fancy 
we must keep watching for the next best thing , and 
for two years past I have been using a “ steamer,” 
(at least, this is the only name I know for the arti¬ 
cle). Brown bread of any kind, cooked in a steam¬ 
er, and finished with twenty minutes of browning 
in a modern oven, is not to be despised ; indeed, it 
is a luxury that I seldom see away from home. It 
has the merit of “long-continued cooking,” at 
an even temperature, “with juices and flavors re¬ 
tained ;” and the same applies to a large variety of 
the articles used for our table. Stuffed meats, veg¬ 
etables of all kinds, apple dumplings, and even 
rice, may be cooked by steam, and need only to be 
carefully tested to be appreciated. In making 
brown bread, I have combined the best elements of 
different recipes, and have had excellent success. 
So many have asked “ How do you make this 
bread?” that I have thought some of your readers 
may like to try the same. 
ForGraliiim Bread, I boil a pint of milk, 
and thicken with wheat meal (Graham flour), then 
add cold milk enough to make the whole as thin as 
light batter. As soon as cool enough not to scald', 
add half a teacupful of hop yeast, and set in a warm 
place to rise. When light, I put in a little salt, and 
half a teaeupful of syrup (or rather sweeten to taste), 
and as much wheat meal (Graham flour) as I can 
stir in with a spoon. Then I sprinkle a little fine 
flour on the dough-board, and mould my brown 
bread until it works clear from my board and hands, 
but still careful not to get it too stiff and dry, then 
put it into a round basin (that will fit nicely in my 
steamer) and return to the warm place to rise. 
When light enough to bake, I put it into the steamer 
over boiling water, and let it cook an hour, then 
bake twenty minutes in the oven. By a little prac¬ 
tice and good judgment, a housekeeper can alter 
the size of the loaf and learn the proper stiffness, 
observing carefully not to open the steamer while 
the bread is cooking, or the bread will be heavy. 
For Corn Bread, I make the sponge 
the same way, with scalded Indian meal, add 
suit and syrup, but thicken with fine wheat flour 
altogether. Let it rise, and 6teamand bukeas above 
described. Indeed, I learned to make corn bread iu 
this way from my mother, before we thought of 
using Graham bread. Perhaps some of your readers 
may not know that the quickest and best way to 
boil milk Is to put it into a tin dish and set that into 
a kettle of hoiliug water. Thus scorching is avoided. 
Domestic Recipes. 
BY AUNT HATTIE. 
To Make Stew ed Oysters Tender. 
—Turn the oysters with the liquor into a conven¬ 
ient dish. With a fork remove each oyster to 
another dish, passing it as you do so through the 
oyster liquor, in order to wash off any bits of shell, 
etc. When all have been removed, strain the 
liquor through a fine sieve, which will retain the 
bits and yellow crabs. Some people eat these lit¬ 
tle crabs, but I reject them from an oyster stew as 
they suggest carelessness. Put the strained liquor 
into the kettle with the quantity of water or milk 
you think proper, and set to boil. Add rolled 
cracker and salt. A little mace (only a little) is a 
great addition, as it brings out the oyster flavor; I 
do not put in pepper as some guests do not like it, 
and the color of the soup is not so good. Each 
person can suit his own taste by using either the 
black or Cayenne. The clearer and whiter a soup 
appears, the better it will be relished. I omit 
cracker In a dinner soup; each guest must be sup¬ 
plied, however, at the table. Keep out the oysters 
until all the ingredients of the soup are added, and 
until it thoroughly boils. Now add the oysters. 
As soon as it comes to a good boil, the soup is 
ready to serve. If you have a very rich stew, a 
great many oysters and little soup—it may be well 
to put only a part of the oysters in at a time, wait¬ 
ing until the first lot have had a good scald before 
adding the remainder. The idea is to give each 
oyster a good scald on the outside surface; it 
cooks them sufficiently and avoids the toughness 
that comes from overcooking. Treated according 
to these directions the oysters in a stew will be 
as tender as raw ones. It is very ea6y to spoil 
oysters by overdoing them. 
Roast Goose.— It should be very fat; remove 
every pinfeather. Then pass alighted paper over 
the outside surface to remove the fine hairs. Make 
a forcemeat, either as for ^urkey, of fine bread 
crumbs seasoned with summer savory, salt and pep¬ 
per, or, with sage and two onions chopped fine, 
with pepper and salt. Roast until a fine brown all 
over. If a nice brown around the legs and wings, 
you may be pretty sure it is done. Remove every 
particle of the fat from the pan. It is not fit to eat. 
Keep it however, for a lubricating oil, and other 
useful purposes. Make a gravy of the brown 
sediment remaining in the pan. Apple sauce and 
onion sauce with potatoes, peeled and boiled whole, 
are the usual accompaniments. 
Roast Duck. —The fatter the better, as 
it will then be juicy and tender. The feet, neck, 
gizzard, and liver, must be stewed until tender. 
See that every pinfeather is removed, and singe off 
the hairs. Be very careful to remove the two oil 
sacs from the back, as they will impart a very dis¬ 
agreeable flavor if allowed to remain. Forcemeat 
the same as for goose. Roast uutil brown. Re¬ 
move all the fat from the gravy. Serve with pota¬ 
toes, apple sauce, onion sauce, and green peas. 
How to Skin and Stew a Babbit. 
—Make a small incision in the lower part of the 
belly, being careful not to cut deeper than the 6kin. 
Put down the knife and gently tear the skin up¬ 
wards about three inches. Now take hold of one 
hind leg and force the hip joint up along the side 
of the body under the skin. Take hold of the bare 
joint and pull the leg out of the skin. Do the 
other the same. Now take hold of the two skinned 
legs with one hand and grasp the loose skin with 
tLe other hand. U6e your strength firmly but 
gently, and separate the remaining skin, including 
the head and fore feet. The feet joints with a half 
of the ears must be separated under the skin with 
a knife, and remain with the skin, as they cannot 
he skinned. After removing the entrails, soak un¬ 
til white and free from blood. Double 1 lie feet un¬ 
der, and secure the head firmly to the back. Tie 
the body firmly with a nice white string, and stew 
gently until very tender. I use, to accompany the 
rabbit, a nice onion sauce, but bread sauce or 
a mushroom stew may be served, as preferred. 
