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Fried Apples
Tart apples, pared, quartered and baked, are better than apples fried but to cook the latter with delicate effect place a lump of butter in a saucepan and when heated spread on it a layer of quartered and again divided or finer-sliced apples. Sprinkle with sugar and a little flour letting brown, turning, and browning upon second side. Tart apples and onions (two-thirds apples) may be fried or baked together as indicated for apples alone.
A fried-apple method with no quantities and no heat setting, which is typical of turn-of-the-century fruit books. The technique is sound; it just needs numbers.
- Pan and fat"Saucepan" here probably means a shallow pan used on the stovetop rather than a modern deep lidded saucepan. As a working equivalent, a 10-inch skillet with 2 tablespoons butter will hold about 3 apples in a single layer.
- Tart applesFirm, acid varieties hold their shape best: Granny Smith, Northern Spy, Winesap. Sweet modern eating apples such as Gala or Red Delicious tend to go soft and mealy under the same treatment.
- HeatMedium. Butter over high heat will brown and burn before the sugar caramelises, and the apple slices will be raw at the centre.
- The sugar and flourRoughly a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of flour per pound of apples. The flour is there to bind the butter and released juice into a light glaze; more than that turns pasty.
- Turn onceThis is the hinge. Let the first side brown undisturbed for 4 to 5 minutes, then turn and give the second side the same. Stirring throughout breaks the slices down and gives patchy browning at best.
- The baked alternativeThe writer prefers quartered tart apples baked, but gives no temperature, time or seasoning. A moderate oven, roughly 375F for 30 to 40 minutes, will take them to tender and lightly coloured.
- Apples and onionsTwo-thirds apple to one-third onion; the recipe does not say whether by weight or volume. It directs that they be cooked together, though in practice the onions need longer to soften and sweeten and are better started several minutes ahead.
- YieldThree medium apples serve two as a side dish or four as a garnish for pork, sausage, or fried ham.
Fried apples belong to the stove-top fruit cookery that filled out American breakfasts and supper plates through the nineteenth century, when apples were the one fruit almost every household had in quantity through the winter. They were cooked in the fat left from frying bacon, salt pork or sausage as well as in butter, which is why they turn up so consistently as an accompaniment to pork. The apple-and-onion combination noted at the end is an older European pairing, common in German and Dutch-descended cooking in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, and still served with sausage and with liver. The author's aside that baked apples are "better than apples fried" stands on its own as a preference.