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Apple Ginger
Boil gently together a quarter of a pound of whole ginger bruised, three pounds of sugar, a pint and a half of water, and the juice of three lemons. Bring it to the boiling point, then put in three pounds of apples, weighed after they have been pared and cored. Simmer them gently, and let them remain until the apples have become clear, but be careful that they are not broken. They must be kept in a covered jar in a dry place, and will keep good for some time. Time, three-quarters of an hour, to boil the apples. Probable cost, 1s. 8d. Sufficient for nine or ten persons.
A sugar-and-ginger preserve in which apple pieces are candied whole rather than cooked to a pulp. The whole point is that the fruit turns translucent while holding its shape.
- Keep the apples intactDo not stir once the fruit goes in; move the pan instead, or push the pieces gently under the syrup with a spoon. A bare simmer with the surface barely trembling is what keeps them from collapsing.
- Choose a firm appleCooking apples that fall to sauce, such as Bramley, are wrong here. Use a firm variety that holds its shape — Braeburn, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious — cut into thick wedges or 1-inch chunks.
- Whole ginger, bruisedLarge pieces of root ginger, smashed with the flat of a knife so they release flavour but can be fished out at the end. Victorian recipes calling for "whole ginger" by the quarter pound often meant dried whole root from the grocer, though fresh root can be used. A quarter pound is about 115 g. Ground ginger is not a good substitute; it will cloud the syrup.
- MeasuresAn imperial pint and a half is 30 fl oz, about 850 ml — appreciably more than three US cups. Three pounds of sugar is roughly 1.35 kg, and the apples are weighed after peeling and coring, so start with about 4 lb of whole fruit.
- Time and donenessThree-quarters of an hour is a guide, not a rule. The apples are done when they look glassy right through and the syrup has thickened enough to coat a spoon; older or larger pieces will take longer.
- Storage"A covered jar in a dry place" reflects a period when a very heavy sugar syrup was itself the preservative. For any keeping beyond a couple of weeks, pack into sterilised jars, seal while hot, and refrigerate after opening.
- Yield and servingNine or ten servings as the original has it means small spoonfuls, not bowls. Serve it with cold meats, on buttered toast, alongside rice pudding, or with a firm cheese.
Cassell's places this among the preserves of the late Victorian store cupboard, when sugar had become cheap enough that a household of modest means could candy fruit in quantity — the costing of 1s. 8d. is a standard feature of the book's entries. "Apple ginger" is a name for the method rather than a regional dish: apples cooked in a heavy ginger syrup until they turn clear, a technique borrowed from the older confectioner's craft of candying fruit and shared with marrow ginger, which used the same trick to give a bland, watery vegetable the appearance and bite of preserved stem ginger. Ginger had long been a staple of the spice trade in Britain, reaching kitchens well before the colonial era, and by this period was ordinary enough to be sold whole by the quarter pound at any grocer, while lemon juice did double duty here, sharpening the sweetness and supplying acid to the syrup.