APPLE BUTTER RECIPE

This is a compound of apples and cider boiled together till of the consistence of soft butter. Fill a very large kettle (MUST NOT be boiled in a brass or bell-metal kettle) with cider, and boil it till reduced to one half the original quantity. Then have ready some fine juicy apples, pared, cored, and quartered; and put as many into the kettle as can be kept moist by the cider. Stir it frequently, and when the apples are stewed quite soft, take them out with a skimmer that has holes in it, and put them into a tub. Then add more apples to the cider, and stew them soft in the same manner, stirring them nearly all the time with a stick. Have at hand some more cider ready boiled, to thin the apple butter in case you should find it too thick in the kettle.

If you make a large quantity, it will take a day to stew the apples. At night leave them to cool in the tubs, (which must be covered with cloths,) and finish next day by boiling the apple and cider again till the consistence is that of soft marmalade, and the color a very dark brown. Twenty minutes or half an hour before you finally take it from the fire, add powdered cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to your taste. If the spice is boiled too long, it will lose its flavor. When it is cold, put it into stone jars, and cover it closely. If it has been well made, and sufficiently boiled, it will keep a year or more.

APPLE BUTTER (without cider).

To ten gallons of water add six gallons of the best molasses, mixing them well together. Put it into a large kettle (MUST NOT be boiled in a brass or bell-metal kettle) over a good fire; let it come to a hard boil, and skim it as long as any scum continues to rise. Then take out half the liquid, and put it into a tub. Have ready eight bushels of fine sound apples, pared, cored and quartered. Throw them gradually into the liquid that is still boiling on the fire. Let it continue to boil hard, and as it thickens, add by degrees the other half of the molasses and water, (that which has been put into the tub.) Stir it frequently to prevent its scorching, and to make it of equal consistence throughout. Boil it ten or twelve hours, continuing to stir it. At night take it out of the kettle, and set it in tubs to cool; covering it carefully. Wash out the kettle and wipe it very dry. Next morning boil the apple butter six or eight hours longer; it should boil eighteen hours altogether. Half an hour before you take it finally out, stir in a pound of mixed spice; cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, all finely powdered. When entirely done, put up the apple butter in stone or earthen jars. It will keep a year or more.

APPLE SOUFFLE -1.

One pint of steamed apple, one table-spoonful of melted butter, half a cupful of sugar, the whites of six eggs and the yolks of three, a slight grating of nutmeg. Stir into the hot apple the butter, sugar and nutmeg, and the yolks of the eggs, well beaten. When this is cold, beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and stir into the mixture. Butter a three-pint dish, and turn the soufflé into it. Bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve immediately with any kind of sauce.