Apple Sauce Torte

An icebox torte with no baking at all: cracker crumbs soften into cake-like layers as they absorb moisture from the apple sauce. The long chill is not optional, it is the whole method.

• Butter crackersThese are the plain crisp round or square butter crackers of the 1930s, not saltines and not graham crackers. Ritz-type crackers work; if you use salted tops, taste the crumbs before deciding whether to add sugar to the apple sauce.
• Crumb texture"Very finely rolled" means near sand, not shards. Coarse crumbs stay gritty and the torte will not hold a cut slice. Four cups of crumbs is somewhere around 10 to 12 oz of crackers, depending on how tightly they pack.
• Apple sauce consistencyUse a thick sauce. Thin, watery apple sauce turns the crumbs to paste and the torte will slump when unmolded. Homemade sauce cooked down until it mounds on a spoon gives the firmest result.
• "Sweetened flavored"The period assumption is sugar plus cinnamon, sometimes a little lemon juice or grated rind. Sweeten a shade more than you would to eat it plain, since the unsweetened crumbs mute it.
• The 24 hoursThis is the hinge. The crumbs need a full day in the cold to hydrate and set into layers; at six or eight hours you get a loose crumble rather than something you can slice.
• UnmoldingLine the deep dish with plastic wrap or wax paper before layering, leaving an overhang, and start and finish with crumbs. Invert onto a plate and peel the lining away.
• Icebox means refrigeratorAn icebox typically ran somewhere around 45 to 55F, and warmer than a modern fridge, though it varied a good deal with the ice and the box. A day in a 38F refrigerator is fine and if anything firmer.
• YieldServes 6 as written. The 4 cups of crumbs and 3 cups of sauce come to about 7 cups, so allow a dish of 2 quarts or so. Whipped cream is not garnish so much as ballast here; the torte is dry without it.