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Green 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 flavoring that may be preferred--such as powdered ginger, 2 or 3 cloves, grated lemon-rind, with the juice of the lemon, a little cinnamon, etc. Lay a thin crust over the top. If the apples are dry, the parings and cores may be boiled with a little sugar and flavoring, 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.
A plain double-crust apple pie of the English school, written for a cook who already knows her pastry. The instructions assume a deep pie-dish rather than a sloped American pie plate, and no quantities are given at all.
- QuantitiesThe original names no weights. For a standard 9-inch dish, reckon on about 2 lb of apples once pared and cored, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar depending on how sharp the fruit is. Use rather more fruit than looks necessary, as it settles considerably.
- "Green" applesIn nineteenth-century usage this may mean fresh apples as opposed to dried, or simply hard, unripe cooking fruit; the recipe does not say which. Either way a firm tart apple -- Bramley, Granny Smith, Northern Spy -- suits it better than a soft sweet eating apple, which cooks down to sauce and tastes flat.
- A quick ovenConventionally taken as somewhere around 400 to 450F. The recipe gives no temperature and no staging; if the crust colours before the three-quarters of an hour is up, starting hot to set the pastry and then dropping the heat is one modern way round it.
- The strip round the rimThe thin band of pastry laid on the wetted edge of the dish is the seal. It gives the top crust something to grip, and without it a deep-dish pie with no bottom crust will lift and leak. Press it down firmly and moisten it again before laying the lid.
- Flavourings"any flavoring that may be preferred" reads as a list of options rather than a single fixed blend, though nothing in the recipe forbids combining them; note that it pairs the grated lemon-rind with the juice. A teaspoon of ground cinnamon, or the zest and juice of one lemon, or two or three whole cloves, or a half teaspoon of powdered ginger are all workable amounts. Whole cloves should be counted in and counted out.
- The parings trickThe recipe boils the peel and cores with a little sugar and flavouring, then strains the juice into the fruit; ten minutes or so is enough. Peel and cores carry pectin and apple flavour that would otherwise be thrown away. Since the point is to moisten dry fruit, add the liquid sparingly, or reduce it first, rather than flooding the dish.
- ServingServes six to eight. The "little custard or cream" is pouring custard (creme anglaise) or plain unwhipped cream, poured over each portion at the table rather than baked in.