Apple Betty
3 Cupfuls Soft Bread Crumbs. 3 Cupfuls Apples, Chopped Fine ¾ Cupful Sugar 1/2 Tablespoonful Ground Cinnamon 1/2 Tablespoonful Ground Clove 3 Tablespoonfuls Snowdrift Rub a baking-dish or casserole with Snowdrift, put a layer of apples in the bottom, sprinkle with a little of the sugar and the spice mixed together, and cover with crumbs. Dot with one tablespoonful of the Snowdrift and repeat in this way until all is used, making the last layer of crumbs, which should be sprinkled with the sugar and spice mixed, and dotted with the remaining Snowdrift.
Cover and bake forty-five minutes in a hot oven, 375 degrees F., then brown it quickly. Serve half warm with cream, top milk, Lemon or any of the Hard Sauces given in this book.
A brown betty built in layers rather than mixed, from a shortening manufacturer's promotional book. The quantities are workable once you account for the one ingredient the list leaves out.
- CrumbsThe method calls for crumbs at every layer but the ingredient list gives no amount. Reckon on about 2 cups of dry breadcrumbs, or stale bread torn and dried in a low oven; commercial fine dry crumbs pack too densely and turn pasty.
- SugarThe printed "34 Cupful" is a broken fraction. Three-quarters of a cup suits three cups of chopped apple and the spice load.
- SnowdriftA branded solid vegetable shortening made from cottonseed oil, sold from around the turn of the century. Butter works in the same amounts and tastes better here; solid shortening gives a drier, crumblier crust.
- SpiceA half tablespoon of ground clove is aggressive by current taste. A teaspoon of cinnamon and a quarter teaspoon of clove gives a more balanced result.
- OvenThe book's own "hot oven, 375 degrees F." is moderate by modern reckoning. Bake covered at 375F, then uncover and raise to 425F for the last five to eight minutes to brown the top crumbs.
- ApplesChopped fine, not sliced, so the fruit collapses into the crumbs. A firm tart variety — Granny Smith, Braeburn, Northern Spy — holds enough shape to keep the dish from going to sauce.
- CoveringCover with a lid or foil for the full forty-five minutes. The apples give up their moisture and steam themselves soft; uncovered from the start, the crumbs scorch before the fruit cooks.
- Yield and servingFills a 1 1/2-quart dish and serves four to six. "Half warm" means barely warm, not hot.
Brown betty appears in American cookbooks from the mid-nineteenth century, a thrift dish that turned stale bread and windfall apples into dessert; the origin of the name is not documented and the various explanations offered for it are folklore rather than record. This version comes from a manufacturer's cookbook — Snowdrift was a cottonseed-oil shortening, and books of this kind were given away to persuade cooks to substitute a branded solid fat for butter and lard, which is why the product name appears in place of an ordinary ingredient in every recipe. The instruction to serve it with cream, top milk, or a hard sauce reflects a household where the milk had not been homogenized and the cream still rose to the top of the bottle.