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Apple Pie
Make a good light crust; wet the edge of the pie-dish, and lay a thin strip all round. Pare, core, and slice the apples, and lay them in the dish with a little sugar and any flavouring that may be preferred--such as powdered ginger, two or three cloves, grated lemon-rind, with the juice of the lemon, a little cinnamon, etc. Lay a crust over the top, and ornament with pastry cut into leaves. If the apples are dry, the parings and cores may be boiled with a little sugar and flavouring and the strained juice added to the fruit. Bake the pie in a quick oven. It may be served hot or cold. A little custard or cream is an improvement. Time, three-quarters of an hour to bake. Probable cost, 10d. for a pie, sufficient for five persons.
A plain English double-crust apple pie, written for cooks who already knew how to make pastry. The instructions assume a deep pie-dish with a rim, and a hot oven.
- "A quick oven"Conventionally read as somewhere around 425-450F (220-230C), though no figure is given. If the crust is colouring too fast, drop to about 375F (190C) for the remainder of the three-quarters of an hour so the apples soften without the pastry burning.
- The strip round the rimThis is the hinge of the whole method. Wetting the rim of the dish and pressing on a thin band of pastry gives the lid something to grip; without it the top crust shrinks off the edge and the juices boil over. Seal the lid to that strip, not to the bare china.
- "A good light crust"The recipe does not specify a pastry, and readers were expected to know one already; a shortcrust or rough puff both fit the description. Roughly half fat to flour is a common proportion, and it should be rolled thin.
- The dishA Victorian pie-dish is a deep oval with a broad flat rim, filled generously so the fruit supports the lid. In a shallow modern pie plate the apples will collapse and leave a gap; mound the fruit high, or use a deep casserole dish of similar shape.
- ApplesUse a cooking apple that breaks down — Bramley in the UK, Granny Smith or a mix including a soft variety elsewhere. Dessert apples stay in firm slices and need more sugar. No weight is given in the original; a deep dish for five will take somewhere in the region of 1.5-2 lb (700-900 g) prepared fruit.
- The parings trickSimmering the peel and cores with sugar and straining the liquid into the dish is a real gain in flavour and colour, not just thrift — peel and cores are both comparatively rich in pectin. Reduce it a little first or the filling will be watery.
- Sugar and spiceNo quantity is given, only "a little sugar". Two to four ounces (60-115 g) suits a sharp cooker; two or three cloves, as the recipe suggests, is plenty, as clove overwhelms apple quickly.
- Cost and yieldThe recipe puts it at tenpence for a pie sufficient for five persons.
Apple pie with a full upper crust is one of the oldest continuously made English sweet dishes, appearing in printed cookery from the sixteenth century onward, and the deep rimmed pie-dish that this recipe assumes was common in Victorian kitchens. It functions as a teaching recipe: it demonstrates lining a rim, sealing a lid, ornamenting with pastry leaves and adjusting for dry fruit, all on the cheapest available filling. The note that it may be served hot or cold, with custard or cream, reflects a household where a pie baked at midday was expected to reappear at supper, and the costing in pence was a standard feature of the book.