1760.—APPLES, LEXINGTON STYLE. (Fr.—Pommes à la Lexington.)
Ingredients.—6 sour cooking apples, 1 oz. of flour, 1 oz. of castor sugar, 1 egg, cake crumbs, ground cinnamon, preserved pineapple or pineapple jam, fruit, syrup, frying-fat.
Method.—Pare, core and steam the apples until half-cooked, and let them become cold. Then mix the flour and sugar together, roll each apple in the mixture, brush them carefully with egg and coat with cake crumbs, then fry in hot fat until nicely browned. Fill the centre with finely-chopped pineapple or pineapple jam, pour hot pineapple syrup round the dish, and serve.
Time.—From 1¼ to 1½ hours. Average Cost, 1s. to 1s. 3d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.
1761.—APPLE PUDDING, BAKED. (Fr.—Pouding de Pommes.)
Ingredients.—6 sour cooking apples, ½ a pint of breadcrumbs, 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls sugar, 1 oz. of butter, 1 egg.
Method.—Pare, core and cut the apples into slices, put them into a stewpan with the sugar and 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of water, cook until tender, then stir in the butter and well-beaten egg. Coat the bottom and sides of a well-buttered piedish thickly with breadcrumbs, add the apple pulp, cover with the remainder of the breadcrumbs, put a few pieces of butter on the top, and bake gently for about ¾ of an hour, keeping; the dish covered with greased paper to prevent the surface from becoming too brown.
Time.—About 1 hour. Average Cost, 9d. to 10d. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.
Constituents of the Apple.—All apples contain sugar, malic acid, or the acid of apples; mucilage, or gum; woody fibre and water; together with some aroma, on which their peculiar flavour depends. The hard acid kinds are unwholesome if eaten raw; but by the process of cooking, a great deal of this acid and converted into sugar. The sweet and mellow kinds form a valuable addition to dessert. A great part of the acid juice is converted into sugar as the fruit ripens, and even after it is gathered, by a natural process termed maturation; but when apples decay, the sugar to is changed into a bitter principle, and the mucilage becomes mouldy and offensive. Old cheese has a remarkable effect in improving the apple when eaten, probably from the volatile alkali or ammonia of the cheese neutralizing the acid of the apple.
1762.—APPLE PUDDING, BAKED. (Another Method.)
Ingredients.—5 medium sized apples, 3 tablespoonfuls of flour, 2 tablespoonfuls of finely-chopped suet, 1 pint of milk, 2 eggs, a little nutmeg, a good pinch of salt.
Method.—Make a batter of the flour, salt, eggs and milk (see Yorkshire Pudding, No. 1930). Pare the apples, cut them into quarters and remove the core. Place them in a piedish, sprinkle on the suet, pour
