Apple Meringue Pie, ca. 1920

Tags

apple meringue pie, apple pie, holiday desserts, thanksgiving desserts, vintage desserts

I’m in charge of desserts for Thanksgiving dinner on my husband’s side of the family, so I’ve spent a lot of time in the sweets section of my cookbook collection. There will be pumpkin pie, don’t you worry. But amazingly, not everyone enjoys pumpkin-everything (who ARE these people?? ) So I’m also going to make a few non-pumpkin choices to ensure that everyone has a happy ending to their big meal.

Now, I’ve got nothing against the traditional version of apple pie.  I just like to be different. It’s a compulsion! So when I ran across this recipe, I was intrigued. It’s basically applesauce in a pie crust with a meringue topping! It comes from Desserts and Salads, published in 1920 by Gesine Lemcke, author of The European And American Cuisine, and Chafing-Dish Recipes and, at that time, the principal and owner of the Brooklyn and New York Cooking Colleges.

Ingredients

3 large apples, cored, peeled and cut into chunks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pie crust

Instructions

Place the pie crust in a pie plate and trim. Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit inside the crust. Bake the crust alone at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Stew the apples by placing them in a saucepan covered with water and boiling them for about 20 minutes or until they are very soft. Drain. Or you can place them in a microwave safe dish, cover it with saran wrap, and microwave them for five minutes.

The stewed apples

Place apples in food processor and pulse until they are smooth.

Add the granulated sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg and the yolks of the eggs to the food processor and pulse until well blended.

Apples and other ingredients mix easily in a food processor.

Fill the partially baked pie crust, spread the top even, and pop it back into the oven for 40 minutes or until the filling is set.

It looks very much like you’ve filled a pie shell with applesauce!

A couple of tips about the meringue: Leave your egg whites come to room temperature. This ensures higher volume when you whip them. Also never make meringue on a rainy or a really humid day! The moisture in the air will affect the volume of the egg whites. Make sure your bowl and your whipping attachment are spotlessly clean and completely dry. Finally, meringue is easier to make from eggs that are a couple of days old as opposed to eggs that are fresh. Most of us don’t have to worry much about this because our eggs come from the store and are already a few days old when we get them, but if you have fresh eggs from your own chickens or from a local farm, buy your eggs a couple of days ahead of time before making a meringue.

When you have about five minutes left until the filling is done, begin whipping your egg whites until they are a stiff froth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until well combined.

The meringue, before I spread it out evenly!

When the filling is set, remove the pie and quickly spread the meringue over the top. Be sure to get the meringue all the way to the edge of the pie, touching the crust, to prevent shrinkage. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees and bake the pie for an additional 10 minutes, until the meringue is brown.

Serve and enjoy!

The finished pie. Lots of meringue topping. Delish!

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The Tudor’s Apple Mousse, ca. 1575

Tags

apple, apple mousse, fall, historical recipes, king henry recipes, the Tudors, tudor recipes

The second Tudor-era recipe I decided to try, inspired by my encounter with the Great English Bible of 1541, was apple mousse. It’s a really lovely fall dish and I think it would make a fantastic addition to any fall feast. It looks like applesauce… so when you go to take a bite, it’s richness and thickness is surprising. It’s another easy recipe and makes a fantastic conversation-starter side dish or dessert!

Delicious Gala apples I bought at the Farmer’s Market. They’re so good raw, normally I eat them all before I can cook any apple dishes!

This recipe was translated in Tudor Cookery: Recipes and History by Peter Brears but originally comes from A Proper Newe Book of Cokerye published in 1575 by William How. It’s written like this: Take a dozen apples and ether rooste or boyle them and drawe them thorowe a streyner, and the yolkes of three or foure egges withal, and, as ye strayne them, temper them wyth three of foure sponefull of damaske water yf ye wyll, than take an season it wyth suger and halfe a dysche of swete butter, and boyle them upon a chaffyndgdyshe in a platter, and caste byskettes or synamon and gynger upon them and so serve them forth.

Got all that? Here’s the easy translation.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds or five medium-sized apples, cored, peeled and cut into chunks
3 tablespoons water
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons brandy or rum flavoring (I used rum… it was delish!)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon butter
Ground ginger and cinnamon to finish

Instructions

Put the apples in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them.

Place chunked apples in a saucepan and add just enough water to cover them. Bring them to a boil, then simmer on medium-high heat until they are mushy, about 30-40 minutes depending on the variety. Drain off the water and run the apples through a blender or food processor to puree.

At this point, it’s just applesauce.

Return the puree to a saucepan off heat, and beat in the egg yolks, brandy or rum flavoring, sugar, and butter.

Now the extra ingredients are coming into the mixture.

Return the saucepan to the stove and slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once it’s bubbling, take it off the heat again and pour it into a dish. Allow this to cool completely before serving. Sprinkle with ginger and cinnamon to finish and serve!

I know it looks like applesauce, but it doesn’t taste like it!

Mrs. E’s Apple Pie, ca. 1879

Tags

apple pie, apples, dessert, pie, virigina housewife

My middle-school daughter is selling pies to raise money for band camp. Everywhere we go, we’re hawking pie in a variety of flavors. All that talk about pie made my whole family hungry for one. So I decided to make an apple pie.

Shiny and red!

There are about as many ways to make an apple pie as there are apples varieties. I found three recipes in one beautiful book given to me by my friend Jane Masters. They were all quite different-so I decided to make all three and go in the order of printing. This is the first recipe, from “Housekeeping in Old Virginia,” published in 1879. The book’s title page says it contains “Contributions from 250 of Virgina’s noted housewives, distinguished for their skill in the culinary art and other branches of domestic economy.” Good enough for me!

This recipe is attributed to Mrs. E. It’s super easy. I like that it was the first one that I tried.

It was also quite delicious. Admittedly, I was a little weirded out by the use of whole cloves. They look like bugs to me (!), and I never want to actually eat one-so I picked them out as I sliced the pie. But the flavor they infused into the apples was divine… and makes this pie anything but ordinary.

It’s also funny to me that this pie calls for powdered sugar. But with a little research, I learned that technological advances in the latter half of the 1800’s made the use of powdered sugar more common. So maybe Mrs. E. was trendy for her time!

I know that pie purists may believe that certain types of apples make for a better pie. In my experience, the addition of other ingredients like sugar, lemon juice, and whole cloves is more of a factor in determining the final taste. So I say, use whatever apples are on sale. For this recipe, I used store-bought red delicious-which I really don’t like to eat out of the bag. I think they taste like plastic. But in this pie, they were transformed into something magical!

I must also apologize for the appearance of my top crust. I hate weaving pie crust strips, so I decided to cut out four hearts and just put the decorative crust on top. It didn’t turn out as pretty as I had hoped-it looks a little warped. But it tasted so good!

Ingredients
• 2 batches of Pie Crust for Dummies (or a pkg of two refrigerated pie crusts)
• 4-5 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon whole cloves

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place one crust in your pie plate.

Place a layer of apples onto the crust. Using a spoon, sprinkle some of the powdered sugar over the apples.

This is the first layer with sugar.

Repeat this step until the whole crust is filled to the brim with apples dusted with sugar.

I fit four layers of apples and sugar into my pie plate.

Add the lemon juice and the cloves.

The cloves look weird but they add a wonderful, rich and spicy flavor.

Place the top crust on and seal it. Bake it for 50 minutes.
Enjoy!

The delicious finished product

Look for the other two recipes from the same cookbook, coming soon!

Virgin Wassail, ca. 1920

Tags

drinks, fruit drinks, holiday, new year's day, vintage recipes, wassail

In my search for New Year’s recipes, I decided to try a Wassail-a drink dating back to 13th century England, which was taken at yuletide and meant to toast the health of apple trees and ensure a good harvest in the coming year.

There are about as many Wassail recipes as there are people. Some use juice, some use alcohol, some use cloves and cinnamon and other winter spices, some are heated, others are served cold-so there’s no wrong way to make it.

I chose this recipe because it’s versatile. Most of the New Year’s gatherings I attend include children-so this is alcohol free but a splash of brandy or sherry can be added to the glass of any adult who wants to partake.

The colorful and fruit Wassail, sans alcohol

This recipe comes from Mrs. Wilson’s Cook Book, published in 1920, during the prohibition period in America. (It’s got an interesting subtitle: Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions.) Mrs. Mary Wilson was Instructor of Cooking for the U.S. Navy before opening a cooking school in Philadelphia.

It makes enough for 16 servings, so double it if you are having a larger crowd.

Ingredients
• 1 gallon apple cider
• 3 bananas, cut into thin slices
• 3 oranges, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 1 6 ounces bottle maraschino cherries
• Baked apples-one for each person attending
• ice

Colorful! Have spoons handy so guests can eat the fruit after they’ve finished the cider.

Instructions
Pour cider into large punch bowl. Add ice, bananas, and oranges. Drain juice from maraschino cherries into bowl and cut cherries into small pieces before adding them to the punch.

My baked apples

Put in one baked apple for each guest-the apples are to be taken out and eaten on plates by guests toward the end of their visit. To easily bake apples, core them and put into a microwave-friendly container. Cover tightly with heavy plastic wrap and microwave about five minutes on high.

Cheers and have a great New Year!

Enjoy and have a great 2013!!!