Camp cookery (Kephart)

To boil tea is — well, it is like watering a rare vintage. You know what the old Colonel said: "My friend, if you put water in that wine, God'U never forgive you I" Chocolate. — For each quart of boiling water scrape up four tablespoonfuls of chocolate. Boil until dissolved. Then add half a pint milk. Stir with a peeled stick until milk has boiled up once. Let each man sweeten his own cup. DESSERTS. Dried Fruit. — Evaporated or dried apples, apricots, peaches, prunes, etc., are misprized, underrated, by most people from not knowing how to prepare them. The common way is to put the fruit on to stew without previous soaking, and then boil from one-half hour to two hours until it is more or less pulpy. It is then flat and insipid, besides unattractive to the eye. There is a much better way. Soak the fruit at least overnight, in clear cold water — just enough to cover. If time permits, soak it from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. This restores the fruit to its original size and flavor. It is good to eat, then, without cooking. To stew, merely simmer gently a few minutes in the water in which the fruit was soaked. This water carries much of the fruit's flavor, and is invaluable for sauce. California prunes prepared in this way need no sugar. Dried apples and peaches have none of the rank taste by which they are unfavorably known, but resemble the canned fruit. Apricots properly soaked are especially good. Jelly from Dried Fruit.— I was present when a Southern mountain woman did some "experiencing" with nothing to guide her but her own wits. The result was a discovery of prime value to us campers. Here are the details — any one can follow them: Wash one pound of evaporated apples (or common sun-dried apples of the country) in two waters. Cover with boiling water, and put them on to stew. Add boiling water as required to keep them covered. Cook until fruit is soft (about half an hour). Strain oif all the juice (cheesecloth is convenient), and measure it. There will be, probably, a quart. Put this juice on the fire and add half its own measure of granulated sugar (say a scant pound— but measure it, to make sure of the proportion). Now boil this briskly in a broad, uncovered vessel, without stirring or skimming, until the juice gets syrupy. The time varies according to quality of fruit — generally about twenty minutes after coming to a full boil. When the thickened juice begins to "flop," test it by letting a few drops drip from a spoon. When the drops thicken and adhere to the spoon, the syrup is done. There will be a little more than a pint. Pour it out. As soon as it cools it will be jelly, as good as if made from fresh fruit and much better than what is commonly sold in the stores. The apples remaining can be spiced and used as sauce, or made into pies or turnovers, or into apple butter by beating smooth, adding a teacupful of sugar, spicing, and cooking again for fifteen or twenty minutes. If preferred, a second run of jelly can be made from the same apples. Cover again with boil-