Fried Apples
Quarter and core apples without paring; prepare frying-pan by heating it and putting in beef-drippings, lay the apples in the pan, skin side down, sprinkle with a little brown sugar, and when nearly done, turn and brown thoroughly. Or, cut in slices across the core, and fry like pancakes, turning when brown; serve with granulated sugar sprinkled over them.
A skillet side dish from the era when a pan of beef drippings stood by the stove at all times. Almost nothing needs converting here, but a few choices decide whether you get caramelized apple or apple sauce.
- Beef drippingsThe rendered fat poured off roasts and steaks, kept in a crock by the range. Bacon fat, lard, or butter all work; butter browns fastest and will need a lower flame. Beef fat gives a savory edge, and dishes like this were commonly eaten alongside pork and sausage.
- Choose a firm appleSkins are left on, so the fruit must hold its shape. A dense, tart keeping variety of the sort commonly cellared is the safer choice; modern soft, mealy apples collapse into pulp before the cut faces color.
- Skin side down firstThis is the hinge of the first method. The skin acts as a shield while the flesh steams through, so the quarters keep their shape; only at the end do you turn them onto the cut face to brown. Turning too early gives you a pan of mush.
- Heat levelMedium is right. High heat scorches the brown sugar long before the quarters are tender, and low heat draws out juice and stews the fruit. The pan should sizzle steadily, not smoke.
- TimingUnpared quarters need roughly 10 to 15 minutes on the skin, then 3 to 5 more once turned. Slices cut across the core are thinner and will be done in about 2 to 3 minutes a side; the original compares them to pancakes.
- The second methodCutting across the core gives rings with the star of seeds in the middle; flick the seeds out with a knife point before frying. These rings are also what get sprinkled with granulated sugar at the table rather than brown sugar in the pan.
- YieldFigure three medium apples for four people as a side dish. Fry in a single uncrowded layer and work in batches rather than piling the pan, or the fruit steams instead of browning.
Buckeye Cookery came out of Ohio in 1876 and reflects a farm household with a cellar full of apples and a crock of beef drippings, both of which had to be used up. Fried apples belonged to breakfast and to the plate beside pork, where the fruit's acid cut through fat; the practice of leaving the skin on is often explained as a matter of thrift and of structure, since the peel holds the quarter together in the pan, though neither reason is documented. The book gives two methods without preferring either; it was compiled from contributed household practice. Skillet-fried apples remain a fixture of Appalachian and Midwestern cooking, generally traced to the same practical logic rather than to any single origin.