Iced Apples
Pare and core one dozen fine, firm apples, leaving them whole. Place in a stewpan, with enough water to cover them, and stew till you can pierce them with a straw. Then remove from the fire, and set in a dish to cool. Then fill the centre with currant or some other jelly, and ice over as you would cake. Serve in a glass dish, and eat with rich cream or custard.--Mrs. A. D.
A late-nineteenth-century dessert that depends entirely on not overcooking the apples: they must hold their shape well enough to stand up in a dish and take a coat of icing.
- The hinge — poach, don't stewCook the apples in barely simmering water only until a straw or skewer slides in with slight resistance — depending on variety and size this may be anywhere from about ten minutes to half an hour. A rolling boil or a few extra minutes collapses them and the whole dish fails.
- Choosing apples"Fine, firm" means a variety that holds together: Braeburn, Granny Smith, Jonagold, Northern Spy. Modern McIntosh and most soft eating apples will turn to sauce.
- Poaching liquidWater alone is what the original says, but the apples will taste flat. A light sugar syrup (about 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water) with a strip of lemon peel seasons the fruit and helps it stay firm.
- "Ice over as you would cake"The icing is borrowed from the cake chapter, and the usual period sort was an uncooked one of egg white beaten with sifted powdered sugar and a little lemon juice, spread over the cold fruit. If you would rather not use raw white, use pasteurized whites or meringue powder, or brush the apples with warmed apricot glaze instead.
- StewpanSimply a wide saucepan. A shallow, straight-sided pan lets the apples sit in a single layer without knocking against each other, which is where they break.
- They must be cold firstFill and ice only when the apples are completely cool, and drain them well on a rack. Any warmth or surface water and the icing slides off.
- Jelly fillingThe recipe names currant first but allows "some other jelly". Currant is tart and sets firm, so it holds in the cored centre. Warm it slightly so it spoons in, then let it set before icing.
- Yield and servingOne dozen apples serves 12, one each, in a glass dish with cold pouring cream or a thin boiled custard. Best assembled the day of serving — an uncooked icing over moist fruit is liable to weep if held overnight in the refrigerator.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and first published in 1877, is a collector's book: most receipts carry the initials or name of the woman who supplied them, as this one does with "Mrs. A. D." Whole poached apples filled with jelly belong to a long English and American line of "stuffed" or "iced" apple dishes that made an inexpensive dessert look formal enough for company — the icing borrowed straight from the cake chapter, the glass dish borrowed from the fruit service. Currants are naturally high in pectin and set without additions, which is one reason currant jelly turns up so often as a filling; the pairing of stewed fruit with "rich cream or custard" is standard for the period.