My best 250 recipes

Put two quarts of raspberries in a stone jar or granite kettle, pour over one quart of pure cider vinegar ; cover and stand aside for two days ; drain off the liquor without mashing the berries, and pour it over another quart of fresh fruit, placed in the same jar or kettle, and stand aside as before. At the end of two days strain this carefully and pour it over another quart of fresh fruit, and let it stand one day. This time turn the fruit in a jelly-bag or two thicknesses of cheesecloth, and press it until dry. Wash the kettle, return the syrup, add one pound of sugar to each pint of liquid; stir until the sugar is dissolved, boil for five minutes, skim, bottle, cork with new corks and seal the bottles. Raspberry vinegar diluted with cold water makes a very refreshing drink in hot weather. CANNED PEACHES This recipe will answer for pears — in fact, for all large fruits. Pare and stone the peaches, pack them in jars, cover with cold water, adjust the rubbers, put the lids on carefully, and stand the jars in a large boiler, the bottom of which has been protected by a rack. Partly surround with cold water, cover the boiler, bring the water to boiling point, and let it boil for fifteen minutes. Screw on My Best 250 Recipes 71 the lids as soon as you lift the jars from the boiler ; be careful not to touch the lids on the inside. Next morning give the lids another screw, wipe the jars, and stand them in a cool place. CRABAPPLE JELLY Wash and core sufficient crabapples to make four pounds; put them in a porcelain-lined kettle with two quarts of cold water; bring to boiling point, cook for twenty minutes ; drain in the jellybag for two or three hours. Measure the liquid ; to each pint allow half a pound of sugar. Put the syrup in a porcelain-lined kettle, put the sugar in a pan in the oven ; boil the syrup for ten minutes, add the sugar, boil for about two minutes, and it will then be ready to put in jelly-tumblers. Quince and apple jelly may be made in precisely the same way. FRUIT DESSERTS Fruits are, as a rule, more digestible raw, and when served fresh and cool are the best of desserts, particularly in the summer-time when they are in season. The sweet and sub-acid fruits are best quite cold. The sour fruits are spoiled by over chilling — they should be cool, but not cold. In the early spring, when fruits are expensive, a smaller quantity may be made to do full duty when mixed with light doughs and such starchy materials as tapioca, or with whipped cream and gelatine as in the Bavarian creams. Sugar cooked with fruits is apt to change into new forms, which combine to make the fruit much sweeter than raw fruit with sugar sprinkled over it. In most of the desserts I have given fresh fruit should be used when possible. Do not cook fruit unless you are obliged to do so. Small fruits may be served with cream, but not milk. All fruits are, however, more wholesome when eaten without either sugar or cream. 74 My Best 250 Recipes OATMEAL BOUCHEES Pour left-over breakfast porridge in small coffee cups ; stand them aside to cool. At servingtime turn them out, scoop out the centre of each, leaving a wall and a bottom half an inch thick; fill this with berries or sliced peaches, dust with powdered sugar, and serve with cream, or a carefully-made soft custard. This dessert may be served either at luncheon or dinner, and also for supper when dinner is eaten in the middle of the day. DUTCH APPLE CAKE