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Apples, Iced, or Apple Hedge- Hog
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons. -About 2 dozen good boiling apples. 1 lb. of sugar, 1/2 pint of water, the rind of ½ lemon, minced very ery finely, the whites of 2 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of pounded sugar, a few sweet almonds. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 9d. to 2s.
Peel and core a dozen of the apples without dividing them, and stew them very gently in a lined saucepan with 1/2 lb. of the sugar and 1/2 pint of water, and when tender lift them carefully on to a dish.
Have ready the remainder of the apples, pared, cored, and cut into thin slices; put gently until they are reduced to a marmalade; keeping them stirred, to prevent them from burning. Cover the bottom of the dish with some of the marmalade, and over that a layer of the stewed apples, in the insides of which, and between each, place some of the marmalade; then place another layer of apples, and fill up the cavities with marmalade as before, forming the whole into a raised oval shape. Whip the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, mix with them the pounded sugar, and cover the apples very smoothly all over with the icing; blanch and cut each almond into 4 or 5 strips; place these strips at equal distances over the icing, sticking up; strew over a little rough pounded sugar, and put the dish in a very slow oven, to colour the almonds, and so allow the apples to get warm through. This dish may also be served cold, and makes a pretty supper one.
TIME. From 20 to 30 minutes to stew the apples.
SEASONABLE from August to March. - Apples in Red Jelly. INGREDIENTS for 1 dish.-6 good-sized apples, 6 cloves, 6 oz. of pounded sugar, 1 1 lemon, 2 teacupfuls of water, 1 tablespoonful of gelaof water, 1 tablespoonful of gelatine, a few drops of prepared cochineal. AVERAGE COST, with the garnish, 10d.
Peel and take out the cores of the apples, either with a scoop or a small silver knife, and put into each apple a clove and as much sifted sugar as it will hold. Place them, without touching each other, in a large pie-dish; add more white sugar, the juice of 1 lemon, and 2 teacupfuls of water.
Bake in the oven, with a dish over them, until they are done. Look at them frequently, and, as each apple is cooked, place it in a glass dish. They must not be left in the oven after they are done, or they will break, and so would spoil the appearance of the dish. When the apples are neatly arranged in the dish without touching each other, strain the liquor in which they have been stewing into a lined saucepan; add to it the rind of the lemon, and a tablespoonful of gelatine which has been previously dissolved in cold water, and, if not sweet, a little more sugar, and 6 cloves. Boil till quite clear; colour with a few drops of prepared cochineal, and strain the jelly through a double muslin into a jug ; let it cool a little; then pour it into the dish round the apples. When quite cold, garnish the tops of the apples with a bright-coloured marmalade, jelly, or the white of an egg APPLES, STEWED. beaten to a strong froth, with a little sifted sugar.
TIME. From 30 to 50 minutes to bake the apples.
SEASONABLE from August to March. (A pretty Supper Dish.) Appies, Stewed, and Custard. -INGREDIENTS for large dish.-8 goodsized apples, the rind of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 lb. of sugar, pint of water, pint of custard.
AVERAGE COST, 15.
Pare and take out the cores of the apples without dividing them, and, if possible, leave the stalks on; boil the sugar and water together for 10 minutes; then put in the apples with the lemon-rind, and simmer gently until they are tender, taking care not to let them break. Dish them neatly on a glass dish with the stalks upwards, reduce the syrup by boiling it quickly for a few minutes; let it cool a little, then pour it over the apples. Have ready 1/2 pint of custard made by the recipe for BOILED CUSTARD; pour it round, but not over, the apples when they are quite cold, and garnish with a little bright-coloured jelly and some blanched almonds.
TIME.-20 to 30 minutes to stew the apples.
SEASONABLE from August to March. (A pretty Dish for a Juvenile Supper.) Apples, To Preserve, in
An apple hedgehog is a construction rather than a bake: whole stewed apples mortared together with thick apple marmalade, masked in meringue and bristled with almond spikes. Nearly all the work is in getting the two apple preparations to the right texture.
- The hinge: two textures, not oneHalf the fruit is stewed whole and must stay intact, the other half cooked down to a stiff, spoonable marmalade that acts as cement. If the marmalade is loose the mound will slump under the meringue, so cook it down further than seems necessary and let it cool before building.
- Boiling applesVictorian "good boiling apples" means a cooker that collapses readily -- Bramley is the standard British choice. For the whole apples that must hold their shape, use smaller, firmer specimens or watch them closely; a Bramley will fall apart if pushed past tender.
- QuantitiesTwo dozen apples, a pound of sugar and a pint of water for six is generous by modern appetites; the dish is meant to look imposing. Halving it gives a mound that still holds together.
- Missing measuresSeveral liquid quantities in this text appear without their fractions. Take the poaching syrup as half a pound of sugar to half a pint of water, and use roughly the same proportion again for the marmalade half, adding water only as needed to stop it catching.
- A lined saucepanThis means tin-lined copper or enamelled iron -- the point is a non-reactive surface. Stainless steel or enamelled cast iron does the same job; bare aluminium or unlined copper will dull the colour of the fruit.
- "A very slow oven"Conventionally read as something in the region of 250F. The oven is only there to tinge the almonds and warm the fruit through, not to bake the meringue firm. The recipe gives no time for this stage; a short spell will do, and the almond tips should be watched, as they scorch quickly.
- The icingTwo egg whites and two tablespoons of sugar make a soft, uncooked meringue that will not reach a safe temperature in a very slow oven. If serving to anyone vulnerable, use pasteurised whites. Note that serving the dish cold, as the recipe permits, does not address this: the meringue is still uncooked.
- Blanching the almondsPour boiling water over shelled almonds, stand two minutes, and the skins slip off between finger and thumb. Cut them lengthways while still damp; dry nuts split and crumble.
- ServingSix portions, spooned rather than sliced. It is at its best a few hours after assembly, once the marmalade has firmed but before the meringue weeps.
Hedgehog puddings were a stock piece of English confectionery display from the eighteenth century onward, the name coming from nothing more than the bristle of split blanched almonds stuck into a domed sweet. The same trick was applied to stiffened creams and moulded puddings as well as, here, to a mound of apple; Hannah Glasse gives a version, and the Victorian household books carried the idea to the supper table. The seasonal note -- August to March -- is best read as marking the working life of stored English apples before cold storage and imports flattened the year, and the costing in shillings and pence is a reminder that these books were written for readers keeping accounts as closely as they kept recipes.