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Apple Charlotte, A very simple
INGREDIENTS for sufficient for 6 persons.-Slices of bread and butter, 6 goodsized apples, rind and juice of 1 lemon, moist sugar to taste. AVERAGE COST, 10d.
Butter a pie-dish; place a layer of bread and butter, cutting off the crust, at the bottom; then a layer of apples, pared, cored, and cut into thin slices; sprinkle over these a portion of the lemon peel grated and juice, and sweeten with moist
A pudding of layered bread and butter and sliced apple rather than the moulded, bread-lined charlotte proper. The text here breaks off mid-sentence, so the finishing instructions have to be supplied from the method itself.
- The missing endingThe recipe as printed breaks off mid-sentence; the method implies repeating the layers until the dish is full, finishing with bread and butter, and baking until the apples are soft and the top browned. Something under an hour in a moderate oven suits a dish this size, though the text gives no time or temperature.
- Moist sugarVictorian "moist sugar" is unrefined or partly refined sugar with some molasses left in — light brown sugar is the closest modern match. Allow about 3-4 oz total for six apples, more if they are sharp.
- The applesCooking apples such as Bramley collapse to a sauce, which suits this layered version; eating apples hold their slices and give a firmer pudding. Slice thin, as directed, or the bread will brown long before the fruit softens.
- Bread and butterUse a close-textured white loaf, slightly stale, cut about a quarter-inch thick and buttered generously. Modern soft sliced bread turns to paste; the butter is structural here, not seasoning.
- LemonGrate the rind before juicing, and divide both between the layers rather than putting all the acid on the bottom one. A whole lemon to six apples gives a pronounced lemon flavour.
- Pie-dishA Victorian pie-dish is typically a deep oval earthenware dish, in a range of sizes. Any 1- to 2-quart baking dish works; keep the depth so the layers stay distinct.
- Serving and costSix portions, as stated. Serve hot with cream or custard. The "average cost, 10d." is a period marker rather than useful information — it reflects mid-Victorian prices when apples were cheap and butter was not.
Apple charlotte in its formal nineteenth-century form is a mould lined with butter-soaked bread and filled with thick apple marmalade, turned out to stand on its own; the name is generally traced to the late eighteenth century and often said to honour Queen Charlotte, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. What Beeton gives here is the household shortcut: the same components — bread, butter, apple, lemon, sugar — simply layered in a pie-dish and baked, with no unmoulding and no risk of collapse. That distinction between the dressed dish and the family version runs right through her Book of Household Management, which was addressed to middle-class households and which gives an average cost for most recipes so a mistress could reckon expenditure. Bread-based puddings were a common way of using up stale loaves.