The household cook book

Improved Apple Sauce. — Pare and core 10 tart apples and stew with as little water as possible; then add 1 cup powdered sugar; whip the whites of 4 eggs to a stiff froth, add to the apples, and stir rapidly for a few minutes. Set aside to cool, and serve with sweetened cream flavored with lemon. It somewhat resembles ice cream, and makes a delicious dessert served with nice cake. Improved Apple Sauce No. 2. — Too sweet apples do not cook well. Cook the sliced apples, in barely water enough to cover them, until tender enough to mash easily through a colander; sweeten while warm, and season with rose-water, lemon juice and nutmeg. Lemon peel stewed with them adds a delicate flavor. CIDER APPLE SAUCE.— Take 4 quarts of sweet apples, pared, quartered and cored; add 2 quarts of cider either sweet or boiled; cover with a plate, and boil slowly but steadily until the apples are cooked. DRIED APPLE SAUCE.— Look over and wash the apples, and let them soak over night in soft water; cook them next morning, slowly and without stirring, until they are tender; about 5 minutes before taking from the stove add sugar to sweeten; mash through a sieve, and flavor with cinnamon. Dried Peach Sauce can be made the same way, but do not mash it, and season it less. CRANBERRY SAUCE.— Pick over the berries, wash and scald them, and put on to stew over a moderate fire, adding 1 cup water for each pound of cranberries; cover, and stew slowly, stirring as little as possible. If boiled hard, especially when first put on the stove, it is apt to separate the skin from the berry. Sweeten them to taste on taking them from the stove. Part of the acid can bo extracted from the cranberries, so that less sugar will be needed to sweeten them, if they are allowed to stand first, for about 5 minutes, in boiling water; gfOfS then drain them out, and set them on to stew with fresh water; a few raisins added to cranberries make a pleasant combination. Cranberry Sauce No. 2.— Take 3 cups water, 1 lb. of raisins, and 2 quarts of cranberries; boil until soft enough to sift easily; pass it through a sieve, add 2 cups sugar, and boil 10 minutes. If some of it is desired for immediate use pour it into a mold; can the remainder for future use. Or they can be cooked together, sweetened, and set aside to cool without being put through the sieve. BANANAS, BAKED — Peel the bananas, cut them in halves, and put them in a shallow pan; for each banana allow 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of hot water; melt a little butter in the hot water and pour it over the bananas; with the sugar mix a little salt and spice or lemon juice, sprinkle it on top, and bake in a quick oven till brown — about 20 minutes. [illustration: BANANA TREE] FRIED BANANAS. -(1) Choose bananas which are not quite ripe (the "Plantain" being best) ; peel, slice, and drop them into a frying-pan containing smoking hot fat, about ^ inch deep; they will soon brown; then take them out and serve hot, sprinkled with pepper and salt, or, if for dessert, sprinkle with sugar instead. (2) Or peel, slice, egg and bread=crumb them, and fry to a delicate brown in a kettle of smoking hot fat; drain on a sieve or blotting i^aper and serve.