Apple, Currant, Cherry, or Other Fresh Fruit Pudding

Make a paste as for a beef-steak pudding, either with suet or butter.

Lay into a basin a well-floured cloth, which has been dipped into hot water, wrung dry, and shaken out.

Roll the paste thin, press it evenly into the basin upon the cloth.

Fill it with apples, pared, cored, and quartered, or with any other fruit.

Put on the cover, taking care to moisten the edges of the paste, to press them well together, and fold them over.

Gather up the ends of the cloth, and tie it firmly close to the pudding.

Drop the pudding into plenty of fast boiling water.

When it is done, lift it out by twisting a strong fork into the corner of the cloth, turn it gently into the dish in which it is to be served.

Cut immediately a small round or square from the top, or the pudding will quickly become heavy.

Send it to table without the slightest delay, accompanied by pounded, and by good Lisbon sugar, as many persons prefer the latter, from its imparting a more mellowed flavour to the fruit.

A small slice of fresh butter, and some finely grated nutmeg, are usually considered improvements to an apple pudding.

The juice, and the grated rind of a lemon may be added with good effect, when the fruit is laid into the crust, especially in spring, when the apples generally will have become insipid in their flavour.

For tables of any pretension, sugar must be added to them when they are made.

A small jar of apricot jam is always an admirable addition to an apple tart or pudding.

A small glass of wine when the fruit is not juicy, will assist to bring it to the right consistence.

When puddings are preferred boiled in moulds or basins, these must be thickly buttered before the paste is laid into them, and the puddings must be turned from them gently, that they may not burst.