The new practical housekeeping

Dried Apple Sauce. — Look over dried apples carefully and soak until tender .in enough cold water to cover, allowing for swelling. The old-fashioned dried apple requires soaking overnight, or for several hours ; the delicate sliced dried apple, sold as "evaporated apple,'' requires only about fifteen minutes, in just water enough to cover. The former must be carefully washed before soaking, but the sliced apple is perfectly clean. Boil in the water it was soaked in, steadily and slowly, and stir often, keeping closely covered. Break up the dried rind of an orange for every quart of apple, and boil with it. When soft, like jam, take off and rub through sieve. Sweeten to taste and serve cold: Some like to season highly with cinnamon. To prepare quickly, soak fifteen minutes in clean warm water; drain, cover with cold soft water, place on the stove, let boil slowly two to four hours, mash fine, sweeten and season with cinnamon very highly. For a nice sauce with raisins, put two pounds dried apples and one pound raisins in a crock with plenty of water and set on back of stove. Let boil slowly all day. When almost done add a lemon peeled and sliced very thin and two pounds sugar. Never add sugar until about five minutes before removing from the stove, otherwise the fruit will be toughened and hardened. A nice way of serving is to raise a border of dried apples prepared as in first recipe above, in a large dish or ice cream saucer, as the case may be, fill the hollow middle with boiled custard and spread a meringue of sweetened and whipped whites of eggs on top. Brown with hot salamander or shovel. Black Apple Sauce is made with dried apples and dried black raspberries stewed together. Soak both separately overnight in water to cover. Stew the apples in water soaked in, until half done, then add raspberries, without the juice, and when both are nearly done sweeten to taste and simmer gently a few moments longer. Dried Bananas. — A method for drying bananas has been patented in Jamaica, and they may now be purchased in the larger cities. The fruit retains its flavor in a remarkable degree. The banana is cut in half lengthwise and dried slowly, which prevents fermentation and decay. They are prepared for use as other dried fruits. Dried Blackberries. — Dry in the sun, or fruit evaporator, or in the oven, like apples, being careful when drying in oven not to scorch them in the least. Dried thus, blackberries make excellent pies and are better if not stewed for this purpose. If simply put in the crust with sufficient water and sugar and a very little flour they will be found to cook quickly and retain their fresh flavor in a remarkable degree. Some prefer, however, to dry them with sugar, allowing a A pound sugar to eight or ten quarts berries ; put over the fire with a a half pint water and bring slowly to boiling point ; then skim out berries and spread on plates to dry, pouring the juice over, a little on each plate Dried Raspberries may be prepared after either method.