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Norfolk Biffins, Dried
The Norfolk beefing, or biffin, is the name given to a hard, a sweet apple well known in Norfolk, which is remarkable for being rosy coloured both inside and out, and which is prepared by being baked gently in the oven, flattened into the form of a round cake, and so preserved. Biffins may afterwards be stewed, like Normandy pippins, or made into pies. They may be purchased ready dried, but if prepared at home should be baked very gently, taken out every now and then to cool, slightly flattened, and then put into the oven again. If great care is not taken they will burst, and so be spoilt. Probable cost, uncooked, 1s. per pound.
This is a drying method rather than a dish, and the whole thing hinges on heat low enough that the fruit never comes to a boil inside its own skin.
- Oven temperature"Very gently" means a low and falling heat; the book gives no figure, and in period this kind of drying was commonly done in the residual warmth of a cooling oven. In a modern oven use the lowest setting available, with the door propped ajar so moisture escapes.
- Why they burstIf the pulp steams faster than the skin can vent, the apple splits and the juice runs out. That is the reason for repeatedly taking them out to cool: each rest lets the internal pressure equalise before more moisture is driven off.
- The flatteningPress only when the fruit is warm and slack, never when hot and taut, and only a little at each turn. The book asks only that they be "slightly flattened" each time they come out, the cake shape building up over successive bakings.
- TimingThe book gives no times, but the method described -- repeated short bakings with a cooling rest between each -- implies work spread over more than a single session. They are done when they feel dense and pliable with no soft spot in the middle.
- Finding the appleThe Norfolk Beefing is a heritage variety with dry, dense flesh and is rarely sold. Any firm, low-juice cooking or russet-type apple behaves similarly; avoid soft eating apples, which collapse into puree.
- Normandy pippinsThe comparison is to whole dried French apples, then a standard grocer's line, stewed in water or wine with sugar until they plump again. Dried biffins are used the same way: soak, then simmer gently.
- Cost and quantity"1s. per pound" is the pre-decimal shilling, a Victorian retail price with no modern equivalent worth converting. Reckon that a pound of fresh apples yields roughly three to four ounces dried.
- KeepingStore fully dried, in a tin or paper in a dry place. Any apple still cool and damp in the centre will mould within weeks.
The Norfolk Beefing, or biffin, is an old East Anglian apple whose name is often said to derive from "beef", by way of its beef-red skin, though the etymology is uncertain and partly traditional; the spelling "biffin" is the local pronunciation that stuck. Norwich bakers made a trade of them, sliding trays of apples into the brick ovens as the bread came out and letting the residual heat do the work over days, which is exactly the falling, intermittent heat this entry tries to describe. They travelled well and kept for months, so they were sold as a Christmas fruit alongside oranges and figs: Dickens has "Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy" heaped in the fruiterers' windows in A Christmas Carol. By the time Cassell's was compiled the dried cakes could simply be bought, and the book still sets out the process for a household that might want to do it itself.