The household cook book

APRICOT PASTE — Use ripe apricots; put them in a preserving pan with a little sugar, and place them on the side of the range to reduce them to a paste; rub them through a hair sieve, allow ^ lb. sugar to 1 lb, pulp, and boil it 10 minutes; then finish like apple paste. APPLE PASTE — Choose sound ripe apples, peel, core them, and cook in a little water till quite soft; rub them through a hair sieve, using a wooden spoon; weigh the pulp and put it in the preserving pan, with the same weight of sugar, and boil 20 minutes; remove it, spread out thin on plates or in molds, and dry in a cool oven or on a cool stove. If desired it can be colored with some of the vegetable colors elsewhere given. The Apple belongs to the rose order. The cultivated varieties have sprung from the wild apple or crab. This delightful fruit is made very wholesome by baking or boiling. The acid is mainly malic. The hard, acid kinds are unwholesome if eaten raw, but by cooking a great deal of their acid is decomposed and converted into sugar. A large part of its acid is turned to sugar as the fruit ripens, or even after it is gathered, by the process of maturation. When apples decay, the sugar is changed to a bitter principle, and the gum becomes moldy and offensive. Old cheese has a remarkable effect in meliorating the effects of the apple when eaten with it, probably from the volatile alkali or ammonia of the cheese neutralizing the acid. CURRANT PASTE — Take red or white currants, pick them over carefully, rub through a sieve, and put the mashed fruit in a pan on the fire, stirring it until it forms a paste; allow 1^ lbs. sugar for 1 lb. pulp, mix them together, and boil 20 minutes. Finish like other paste. ORANGE PASTE. — Press the juice out of 5 Seville oranges, and boil them until the rinds are very soft indeed; with a thin wooden or silver spoon scoop out all the pulp, and pound the rinds as fine as possible in a mortar with |- the extracted juice. Rub it all through a hair sieve, and simmer on the fire until it becomes like marmalade. Empty it out, weigh it, and allow 2 lbs. sugar for 1 lb. pulp; boil it 10 minutes, and spread out and dry like apple paste. Lemon Paste can be made the same way, but do not use any of the juice. PEACH PASTE — Cut the peaches into small pieces, and cook, with barely enough water to cover them, until reduced to a pulp; allow ^ lb. sugar to 1 lb. pulp, and boil 20 minutes; finish like other paste. PLUM PASTE — Any kind of preserving plums will do; stone them and boil, with very little water, to a jam; rub through a hair sieve, put on the stove, and reduce to a paste; allow 1 lb. sugar to 1 lb. pulp, and cook 20 minutes; finish like other paste. RASPBERRY PASTE — Take 2 quarts of ripe red raspberries, put them in an earthen jar and place it in a kettle of boiling water; boil until the juice is well separated, then pulp them through a fine colander. Mix with the fruit an equal weight of sugar, put it in a saucepan, and cook until it is a firm paste — stirring constantly to prevent burning; spread on plates to nearly dry in the oven, then cut it in squares, cover both sides well with pulverized sugar, and pack in paper boxes with layers of white paper between. Strawberry Paste can be made the same way.