II.
(More Economical.)
1229. INGREDIENTS.—12 large apples, 6 oz. of moist sugar, 1/4 lb. of butter, 4 eggs, 1 pint of bread crumbs.
Mode.—Pare, core, and cut the apples, as for sauce, and boil them until reduced to a pulp; 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.