p; then add the butter, melted, and the eggs,
which should be well whisked. Beat up the pudding for 2 or 3 minutes;
butter a pie-dish; put in a layer of bread crumbs, then the apple, and
then another layer of bread crumbs; flake over these a few tiny pieces
of butter, and bake for about 1/2 hour.

_Time_.--About 1/2 hour.

_Average cost_, 1s. 3d.

_Sufficient_ for 5 or 6 persons.

_Seasonable_ from August to March.

_Note_.--A very good economical pudding may be made merely with apples,
boiled and sweetened, with the addition of a few strips of lemon-peel. A
layer of bread crumbs should be placed above and below the apples, and
the pudding baked for 1/2 hour.

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 is
decomposed and converted into sugar. The sweet and mellow kinds
form a valuable addition to the dessert. A great part of the
acid juice is converted into sugar as the fruit ripens, and even
after it is gathered, by natural process, termed maturation;
but, when apples decay, the sugar is changed into a bitter
principle, and the mucilage becomes mouldy and offensive. Old
cheese has a remarkable effect in meliorating the apple when
eaten; probably from the volatile alkali or ammonia of the
cheese neutralizing its acid.

RICH SWEET APPLE PUDDING.

1230. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 lb. of bread crumbs, 1/2 lb. of suet, 1/2 lb. of
currants, 1/2 lb. of apples, 1/2 lb. of moist sugar, 6 eggs, 12 sweet
almonds, 1/2 saltspoonful of grated nutmeg, 1 wineglassful of brandy.

_Mode_.--Chop the suet very fine; wash the currants, dry them, and pick
away the stalks and pieces of grit; pare, core, and chop the apple, and
grate the bread into fine crumbs, and mince the almonds. Mix all these
ingredients together, adding the sugar and nutmeg; beat up the eggs,
omitting the whites of three; stir these to the pudding, and when all is
well mixed, add the brandy, and put the pudding into a buttered mould;
tie down with a cloth, put it into boiling water, and let it boil for 3
hours.

_Time_.--3 hours.

_Average cost_, 2s.

_Sufficient_ for 5 or 6 persons.

_Seasonable_ from August to March.

TO PRESERVE APPLES.--The