Apple Pies
1. Pare the apples and slice them off the cores into a bright pan or brass kettle. To every pound allow on an average a quarter pound of white sugar and a cupful of water. Throw in 6 cloves or some lemon peel for flavor, shut with a tight lid and led stew slowly in the steam. Mash through a colander. Bake in open pies. Apples of poor quality that turn blue in cooking are often improved by the addition of the juice of a lemon. 2. Apples cored and quartered and stewed in flavored syrup like preserves without breaking may be filled into shell pies or vol-au-vents baked separately, as explained further on. For every pound of the apple quarters allow 6 ounces of sugar and half cup of water with cloves and lemon peel. Let the syrup boil first, throw in the apple quarters and shut in the steam. Simmer half an hour without stirring them. 3. Early green apples. Wash and steam them whole. Mash through a colander, add sugar, butter and cinnamon or nutmeg. Bake with a top crust. Powd red sugar over when done. 4. Sliced apple pie. Use this way only the best ripe cooking apples Pare and core them and slice them thin across the core. Fill paste-lined pie pans, about 2 layers deep. Thinly cover the apple slices with sugar and grate nutmeg over. Put in each pie butter size of a walnut and a large spoonful of water. Bake without a top crust slowly and dry. The apples become transparent and half candied.