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Scalloped Apple
1½ cup bread crumbs from center of loaf 4 cups sliced apples 1 teaspoon salt cup water Arrange crumbs and apples in layers, in a buttered pudding dish, having crumbs on the top layer. Sprinkle each layer with sugar and cinnamon and dot with butter; add lemon juice, lemon rind and water, just before sprinkling on the last layer. Bake in slow oven one hour. 4 cups sliced apples ½ cup water 2 cups flour
A plain layered apple charlotte in the American style: buttered crumbs, sliced apples, sugar and spice, baked slowly until the fruit collapses. The ingredient list is skeletal, so most of the quantities are left to the cook's judgment.
- Slow ovenRoughly 300F (period usage for "slow" ranges about 250-325F) for the full hour. The long low heat is what lets the apples soften and give up their juice into the crumbs without the top layer scorching.
- Bread crumbs from the centre of the loafThis points to soft crumbs from the interior of the loaf rather than dry packaged crumbs. Dried crumbs absorb more liquid; if that is all you have, use less.
- Butter the crumbs, not just the dishDotting each layer with butter is what keeps the crumbs distinct rather than sodden. Roughly 3 tablespoons total, with a little extra on the top layer so it browns.
- Unlisted amountsSugar, cinnamon, butter, lemon juice and lemon rind appear only in the method. For 4 cups of apples, figure on about 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, the juice and grated rind of half a lemon.
- The saltA full teaspoon of salt in a dessert of this size is far more than modern taste allows; 1/4 teaspoon is enough to sharpen the apples and the crumbs.
- WaterThe quantity has lost its fraction in this printing. About 1/2 cup is a reasonable guess for a firm cooking apple; use less, or none, for a soft juicy variety that will release its own liquid.
- ApplesChoose a variety that holds some shape under long baking, such as Braeburn, Golden Delicious or Northern Spy. Four cups of slices is roughly 3 to 4 medium apples, about 1 1/4 lb.
- Dish and yieldA 1 1/2-quart baking dish suits this quantity, and it serves four to six. Serve warm with cream or a hard sauce if you like; the recipe itself says nothing about serving.
Scalloped apple belongs to a large family of Anglo-American crumb and stale-bread puddings alongside apple charlotte and brown betty, dishes that made use of leftover bread and windfall fruit. "Scalloped" in American cookery of the period generally described food layered in a dish with crumbs and butter and baked, which is why the term covers oysters, potatoes and apples alike. This is about as ordinary as a dessert gets.