Apple Dumplings
For dumplings the apples should be large and juicy—pippins, bellflowers, or the best you can get. Small sweet apples make very poor dumplings. Having pared the apples, extract the cores with a tin apple-corer, so as to leave them smooth and whole. Why is it that so many families “have never had an apple corer in their house?” They cost, at the utmost, but twenty-five cents, are to be had at all the tinsmiths’ and furnishing stores; and they screw out an apple core in a minute; saving time and trouble. The apples being ready, make a nice paste in the proportion of a small pint of finely-minced suet, to a large quart of flour; one-half of the suet rubbed into the pan of flour, (adding a very little water) the other half sliced thin, and spread all over the sheet of dough after it is rolled out; then folding it, and rolling it out again. Cut the sheet of dough in as many circular pieces as you have apples, allowing them large enough to close entirely over the top, and rolling it thick enough to hold the apple securely without danger of its breaking through. Put an apple on every piece of paste, and fill with brown sugar the hole from whence the core was taken. Squeeze on the sugar some fresh lemon juice, with the grated yellow rind; or, add some powdered nutmeg or mace, or some rose-water. This will make them very nice. They should be boiled in small cloths kept clean for the purpose, dipped in hot water, and sprinkled with flour, and room left for the dumpling to swell. Put them into a pot of boiling water, and boil them steadily for near an hour. Serve them up very hot, as they become heavy when cold. Eat with them butter and sugar, or cream sauce.