The home cook book

The Boon of an Apple Barrel— The Care of Apples— Cooked Apples— Apples as Salad — Apple Fritters— Apple Sauce — Cider Apple Sauce — Apple Butter — To Bake Sour Apples — To Bake Sweet Apples — Fried Apples — New England Pan Dowdy — Stewed Dried Apricots— Stewed Cranberries— Baked Pears— Stewed Dried Prunes — To Stew Prunes Without Sugar— Stewed Quinces and Apples— Stewed Rhubarb T THE BOON OF AN APPLE BARREL 'HE housewife who has been careful to add to her winter 1 stores a barrel of apples, for all winter long — almost till strawberries are cheap — has the wherewithal for most wholesome and appetizing dishes. It is better economy, no matter if the family is large, to purchase only one barrel in the fall. At intervals during the winter, when another barrel is required, it may cost more, only one has to take into consideration the fact that in the ordinary furnace-heated cellar the lasting quality of apples is impaired. Better pay the cold storage man fifty cents for having kept them safely than throw away a dollar's worth of rotten fruit. If you are lucky enough to possess a cool vegetable cellar, it is economy to store away several barrels of apples late in the fall, when they are at their cheapest. New clean barrels and a cool calcimined cellar, with plenty of ventilation, are necessities, however. THE CARE OF APPLES The fruit should be examined once a week, being handled very carefully to prevent bruising. It is an excellent plan to keep an empty barrel for this purpose. Two or three decaying apples will speedily taint the flavor of a whole barrel, or make them rot. The fruit which is only slightly spoiled may be culled out, heaped in a peach basket and cooked at the earliest convenience. If you are a house- holder of the East, buy greenings, Baldwins, or russets ; they are the best-keeping winter apples. The Ben Davis and wine saps are two varieties most successfully stored in Western cellars. The professor, skilled in the science of food chemistry, tells us that apples contain gluten, albumen, pectine, fibrine, sugar, starch, malic acid, tannic acid, as well as water and traces of free salts. This all means little to the housewife unskilled in chemistry; she only realizes that, in some subtle fashion of her own. Nature has stored away in the apple such a wealth of healthfulness and spicy flavors as is bestowed on few of the fruits of the tropics. It is full of the elements essential to the building up of sound tissues and the making of good blood. When eaten raw it is at its best. Every day pick the choicest apples from the barrel, polish with tissue paper, and pile in a pretty dish. Accustom the children of your household to apple eating ; as a rule it is an easy task. When a meal is over, remove the apples to a cool pantry; they lose much flavor and crispness when left standing in a heated diningroom. The old adage, which said "Apples are gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night," has been set aside by latterday authorities on nutrition. They assure us that apples eaten raw are gold at night, because they excite the action of the liver, promote sound and healthy sleep, and prove excellent brain food. COOKED APPLES