La cuisine creole

make it quite sweet, and one cup of picked and seeded raisins. Flavor with nutmeg and essence of lemon or vanilla. Bake lightly. Do not allow it to remain in the oven long, as the milk will become watery and thus destroy the jelly-like consistency of the custard. It is a nice and cheap dessert for children. The raisins may be omitted if they are objectionable. APPLE POT PIE, First, the pastry : Rub into a pint of flour a heaping spoonful of lard. Strew in a little salt, and work it until the mass becomes numberless little globules and balls. Then moisten with cold water, and press them together until they adhere, and your pastry is made. It must not be kneaded or worked over at ail. Let any cook try this method, and he will find it the best and easiest way to make fine leaf paste, and he will never again countenance the old rolling, larding, butterspreading System. Now for the fruit : Pare, core and quarter one dozen apples. Put them in a baking pan, with one large cup of sugar, one tablespoonful of spices, two of molasses and one of butter; add water until the fruit is nearly covered, and put it in the oven to bake and stew, and brown. When the apples begin to soften, dredge in a little flour, for the juice, though plentiful, must not be watery. Roll out the pastry. Cut the cover to suit the pan, and make the trimmings into dumplings, which must be dropped at intervals among the fruit. Fold the pie cover in half, make several oblique incisions for openings, lay it on and brown it lightly. Serve on a dish like peach cobbler. Like that substantial dessert, it may be eaten with cream. PRESERVES, SYRUPS AND FRUIT JELLIES. HINTS ON PRESERVING. Preserving kettles should be broad and shallow, with a handle on each side. If you wish to préserve in small quantities, use a small kettle. A charcoal furnace is most desirable in warm weather, as you can put it where you like, and thus avoid the beat of the kitchen. Slow, gentle boiling is absolutely necessary in preserving and pickling. Crushed or loaf sugar should be used for préserves, as it is less liable to ferment during the long hot summer. Jelly bags may be made of cotton, linen, or flannel, and can be made like an old-fashîoned reticule, with a string through the top, to close and suspend it while dripping. It is a mistake to think dark fruits, like raspberries, strawberries, etc., can be preserved equally well with brown sugar, for the color of this sugar makes the pré- serves dark, or rather dingy, which is the proper word. Glass is best for keeping préserves in, as they may be examined without opening the jars. When first put up they should be corked tightly, and dipped into coarse melted sealing-wax. TO MAKE PRESERVES. Most fruits are much easier preserved than jellied. Weigh the fruit, and to each pound of fruit the usual rule is a pound of sugar; make a syrup of the sugar with a half pint of water to each pound of fruit. Boil it clear, then put in the fruit and cook it well^ and boil gently till the fruit is clear. TO GREEN FRUIT FOR PICKLING OR PRESERVING. Put vine leaves under, between, and over the fruit in a brass kettle, and over the leaves sprinkle a taspoonful of beaten or ground alum ; cover the fruit to be greened, with water, and boil it gently with the leaves and alum : if not a fine green, take more leaves and dust a little saleratus over them. Spread them out to cool when green, and proceed to préserve or pickle them as desird. TO PRESERVE PEACHES.