Home › Fruits › To Stew Apples
To Stew Apples
Pare, core and cut in halves. Put in sauce pan with small quantity of water. Cover and cook until tender, add sugar and stir in lightly so as not to break the pieces of fruit. More water is necessary for some apples than others. When this is the case pour off some before adding sugar. If desired slices of lemon can be put with apples. Cinnamon gives them a good flavor. Cook pears and peaches in same way.
A bare-bones stewed fruit method with no quantities at all, which is typical of Mrs. Wilson's shorter entries. Two decisions carry the dish: how little water you start with, and how late you add the sugar.
- Sugar goes in last, and for a reasonSugar draws liquid out of the fruit and firms the cell walls, so apples added to sweetened water stay hard and stew unevenly. Cooking them plain until tender, then sweetening off the heat or over the barest simmer, is what keeps the halves intact.
- How much waterThe recipe says only 'small quantity'; something like 1/4 cup for every 2 lb of fruit is a reasonable starting point, with the pan tightly covered, since the apples release plenty of their own. A wide pan evaporates faster than a narrow one, so look in early rather than at the end.
- Variety matters more than the recipe admitsWhen Mrs. Wilson says some apples need more water, she is pointing at the gap between a firm cooking apple such as Northern Spy, which holds its shape, and a McIntosh, which collapses to sauce quickly. For halves that stay halves, use a firm cooking apple; a modern Granny Smith will do.
- TimingHalves of a firm apple take 10 to 15 minutes at a low simmer, small pieces less. Test with a knife tip rather than by the clock.
- SweeteningRoughly 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar per pound of fruit, adjusted to the apples. Draining off excess liquid before sweetening, as the recipe directs, gives a syrup rather than a thin wash; the poured-off juice is worth keeping for a drink.
- Lemon and cinnamonAdd lemon slices at the start so the acid has time to work into the fruit and help it hold shape. A stick of cinnamon in the pan is cleaner than ground, which clouds the syrup.
- Pears and peachesPeaches are wetter and softer than apples, so use less water and expect 5 to 10 minutes; pears vary enormously, and a firm one may take as long as an apple or longer. Peaches slip their skins easily after a brief blanch, which saves paring.
- YieldAbout 2 lb of fruit, or six medium apples, gives four modest servings as a dessert or a breakfast dish.
Mrs. Mary A. Wilson wrote for the Ladies' Home Journal around the First World War, and her cookbook carries the marks of that moment: short entries, no waste, and sugar treated as something to be measured out rather than poured. Stewed fruit was an everyday staple in a household that put up its own apples, and a barrel of winter keepers in the cellar meant apples in some cooked form from October to spring. The instruction to pour off surplus liquid before sweetening is thrift as much as technique, since sugar dissolved into water you then throw away is sugar wasted.