And now we come to that most useful of all fruits--the apple. This has been dried in many forms, and canned as well. The most recent are the evaporated apple rings--the apple cut into rounds horizontally through the fruit. When these first came out they were called “Alden apple rings,” probably from the town or district where they were grown. They are said to be made from greenings--the best of American cooking apples--and one pound of the apples rings is said to represent six pounds of ordinary apples. The best recipe for cooking these is an American one, and in this the food is required to be soaked in a pie-dish in cold water--just enough to cover it--for four hours; then, without pouring off the water, add sugar, a little lemon rind or spice, and then put the dish in a slow oven and stew very gently till sufficiently cooked. If intended for a tart, soak as directed and stew gently in a slow oven for half an hour before adding the crust, or the latter will be done before the apples are sufficiently cooked. The apples, which are dried whole, must be rather differently treated. Take about a dozen apples, place them in an earthenware or porcelain-lined vessel, and add about a pint and a half of water, and let them soak for seven or eight hours. Then add sugar, spice, and the rind of a lemon to your taste; put them all together as they are into a porcelain-lined saucepan, and stew gently for an hour. If a more _recherche_ dish be required than merely the apples plainly stewed, a little whipped cream may be inserted in the place from whence the core has been taken, and some cream poured round them in a glass dish. “It is simply absurd,” says a recipe writer in an American paper, “to soak evaporated apples over-night”; so, as this is a case of doctors differing, I must give the directions which follow. Place the evaporated apples in a saucepan, cover with water, and boil till done; flavour to taste, and use for sauce, tarts or conserve. Now this recipe I have also found good; and I know that the writer considers that soaking or leaving the apple rings too long in water renders them tasteless and vapid. It seems strange that the subject of dried fruits, save and except the ancient pippins of Normandy, should be quite ignored in our cookery books; and yet there can be no doubt of their value as foods, and adjuncts to other things, at a time when fruit is dear and scarce. They are always inexpensive; a pound goes a long way, and, as a rule, if well done, they are liked by the little folks.