Cooking fruit is really very simple.  But there’s a right way and a wrong way.  Proper preparation and cooking could mean the difference between success and, “Oh, dear!”  Good Housekeeping’s 1929 “Good Meals and How to Prepare them” offers the following tips that are still top notch today.

(P. 10 Good Housekeeping’s Book of Good Meals 1929)

1.     Fresh Fruit.    a.  Stewed:  Wash fruit, pare or peel and cut in pieces or leave whole if small.  Add enough water, hot or cold, to keep from browning.  Cover and cook until tender.  Add sugar to sweeten if necessary.

      b.  Compote cooking in sirup:  Make a sirup using two cupfuls of water to one cupful of sugar.  Put the prepared fruit in the hot sirup, cover closely and simmer until tender.  A small amount of the fruit should be cooked at a time and drained out of the sirup.  The same sirup may be used until all the fruit is cooked, then poured over all.

      c.  Baked or scalloped:  Wash the fruit.  If there is a core, remove with a corer or cut fruit in half and scoop out the core.  Lay in baking dish and sprinkle with sugar and spices if desired.  Barely cover the bottom of the dish with boiling water.  Bake at 400 degrees F. until tender.  Baste with the liquid in the dish several times during the baking.  Add in extra boiling water if necessary.  Apples, quinces, etc., may be baked in a covered dish in less time, removing the cover for the last ten or fifteen minutes to brown.

      d.  Steamed:  The steamer or the pressure cooker is excellent for cooking winter fruits.

2     Dried Fruits.  They should be carefully washed in several waters and any hard parts removed.  Soak six hours or overnight in cold water or for two hours in boiling water and cook in the same water until tender.  Do not add sugar unless very tart.  Dried fruits after soaking may be cooked by any of the methods used for fresh fruits.

3.     Fruit Whips.  Prepare one cupful of fruit pulp such as apple-sauce, sieved cooked prunes, or apricots, fresh or canned peaches; quince sauce, etc.  Beat three egg whites until quite stiff, add sugar to taste and continue beating until blended.  Fold the fruit pulp mixed with a little lemon juice, into the egg whites.  Chill and serve with custard sauce.  Or pour into greased pudding dish and bake at 300 degrees F. for thirty minutes.

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