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Golden Pippins, to Preserve
Take one dozen golden pippins, pare them, and scoop out the core, without breaking the apples. Put two pounds of sugar into a preserving-pan, with one pint of water, and--for a few minutes--the rind of a Seville orange cut into strips; then put in the pippins, and, when the syrup sems thick, add a pint of apple jelly, nicely flavoured with lemon. Boil quickly until the jelly is clear, then lift the pippins into jars, pour the syrup, etc., over them, and, when cold, cover securely. Time, about three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. for this quantity.
A whole-fruit preserve of the old school: apples held in a heavy syrup set with apple jelly, meant to come out of the jar looking like translucent amber. The hinge is heat control — the apples must stay whole, which means they cannot be stirred or hard-boiled once they go in.
- Golden pippinsA small, firm, acid dessert apple, now effectively unobtainable outside collections. Use a small, tart, firm-fleshed variety that holds its shape — Cox, Egremont Russet, Braeburn or a small russet type. Avoid Bramley or any apple that collapses to sauce.
- QuantitiesOne dozen small apples, 2 lb (900 g) sugar, 1 pint water. British pints are 20 fl oz, so read the pint of water as 570 ml and the pint of apple jelly as roughly 570 ml (about 700 g) of set jelly.
- Apple jellyThis is the pectin, and the recipe assumes you have a jar of homemade apple or crab-apple jelly in the store cupboard. A good commercial apple or crab-apple jelly works; redcurrant jelly will set as well but colours the fruit.
- Seville orange rindBitter oranges are in season only for a few weeks in midwinter. Out of season, use a strip of ordinary orange zest with a little extra lemon juice. The rind is lifted out after a few minutes — leave it in and the syrup turns bitter.
- Preserving-panUsually a wide, shallow, untinned copper or brass pan. Any wide stainless or enamelled preserving pan works; width matters more than depth, since evaporation is what thickens the syrup.
- "When the syrup seems thick"Roughly 220F/105C on a sugar thermometer, or the point where a drop wrinkles on a cold plate. Note that the recipe has the apples already in the pan while the syrup reduces.
- Keeping the apples wholeCore with an apple corer from the stem end and poach at a bare simmer, spooning syrup over rather than stirring. Forty-five minutes is the outer limit for the whole operation; small firm apples may be tender in 15 to 20 minutes.
- Jars and storageFill hot, sterilised jars and seal at once with proper two-piece lids. The recipe says only to 'cover securely' once cold. The sugar level and the acidity of the apples make this a stable preserve, but refrigerate after opening and use within a few weeks.
- Yield and servingTwelve apples in syrup; the recipe gives no jar count. A dessert dish of this kind would be served with cream or a plain sponge.
The golden pippin was for two centuries a celebrated English apple, praised by John Evelyn's generation; it declined badly through the nineteenth century — canker and general loss of vigour in the old stock are usually blamed — and by the time Cassell's was reprinted the name was already more nostalgic than practical. Whole apples clarified in syrup belong to the tradition of the confectioner rather than the cook, alongside preserved greengages and candied angelica, and depended on a household stocked with its own apple jelly from the autumn glut. The Seville orange rind dates the recipe as firmly as anything else: bitter oranges arrived from Spain in midwinter and were made into marmalade.