Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Put the apples, water, and nutmeg in a large flatbottomed stew-pan, and place on the fire, to heat slowly. Mix the dry ingredients with the flour, and rub through a sieve. Stir the milk into this mixture, and mix quickly. See that the apples are boiling ; then roll the dough down to the size of the cover of the stew-pan. Lay this over the boiling apples. Cover the pan closely, and draw it back where the contents will not boil quite so hard. Cook for twenty-five minutes. Slip a broad skimmer under the cooked crust, and lift it quickly to a dish. Pour the apple into a large dish, and place the crust on top. Serve with molasses sauce. If, however, molasses sauce be not liked, use any sweet sauce you please. ' For a change, add a table-spoonful of butter and a cupful of sugar to the apples when they are put on to cook. In this case serve cream instead of sauce with the pudding. * Baked Apple Dumplings. For eight dumplings use the same number of large tart apples, three cupfuls of flour, one cupful of butter, the juice of one lemon, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, about half a cupful of cold water, a level teaspoonful of salt, and a piece of soda about the size of a pea. Put the flour, salt, sugar, and butter in the choppingtray, and chop until the butter is cut into bits about the size of a bean. Be rather scant in the measurement of the water. Dissolve the soda in it ; then add the lemon juice, and pour the liquid upon the mixture in the chopping-tray, chopping and mixing all the time. When the mixture becomes a smooth paste, sprinkle the mouldingboard lightly with flour, and turn the paste from the tray upon the board. Koll it down to the thickness of about half an inch ; then fold, and roll again, using as little flour as possible. Now put in a cold place, — if possible, on ice. Pare and core the apples. Grate a little nutmeg in the centre of each apple. Now cut off one-eighth of the paste, and- roll it into a round large enough to cover an apple. Place an apple in the centre of this paste ; then gather up the edges and press them together. Cover all the apples in this manner. Butter the bottom of a shallow cake-pan, and place the dumplings in it, having the side where the paste was drawn together come underneath. Bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes. Serve with lemon cream sauce. * Apple Custard Pudding. The materials needed are : a quart of pared and quartered apples, two cupfuls of grated bread crumbs, a generous half-cupful of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of flour, two of butter, two eggs, a lemon, and half a cupful of water. Put the apples and water into a stew-pan, and cook until the apples will mash easily; then remove from the fire, and add the sugar, butter, and the juice and grated rind of the lemon. Mix the flour with the bread crumbs, and stir into the mixture. Beat the eggs until they are light, and add them to the other ingredients. Turn into a buttered pudding-dish, and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour. Serve with hard sauce or with sugar and cream. * Apple Duff.