APPLE DUMPLINGS.

Take large fine juicy apples. Pare them, and extract the cores without
dividing the apple. Fill each hole with brown sugar, and some chips of
lemon peel. Also squeeze in some lemon juice. Or you may fill the
cavities with raspberry jam, or with any sort of marmalade. Have ready
a paste, made in the proportion of a pound of suet, chopped as fine as
possible, to two pounds and a half of sifted flour, well mixed, and
wetted with as little water as possible. Roll out the paste to a
moderate thickness, and cut it into circular pieces, allowing two
pieces to each dumpling. Lay your apple on one piece, and put another
piece on the top, closing the paste round the sides with your fingers,
so as to cover the apple entirely. This is a better way than gathering
up the paste at one end, as the dumpling is less liable to burst. Boil
each dumpling in a small coarse cloth, which has first been dipped in
hot water. There should always be a set of cloths kept for the purpose.
Tie them tightly, leaving a small space for the dumpling to swell.
Plaster a little flour on the inside of each tying place to prevent the
water from getting in. Have ready a pot of boiling water. Put in the
dumplings and boil them from three quarters to an hour. Send them to
table hot in a covered dish. Do not take them up till a moment before
they are wanted.

Eat them with cream and sugar, or with butter and sugar.

You may make the paste with butter instead of suet, allowing a pound of
butter to two pounds and a quarter of flour. But when paste is to be
boiled, suet will make it much lighter and finer than butter.

Apple dumplings may be made in a very plain manner with potato paste,
and boiled without cloths, dredging the outside of each dumpling with
flour. They should boil about three quarters of an hour when without
cloths.

The apples for dumplings should always be whole, (except the cores;)
for if quartered, the pieces will separate in boiling and break through
the crust. The apples should never be sweet ones.
