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Brown Betty
2 CUPS BREAD CRUMBS 4 TABLESPOONS MELTED BUTTER 4 CUPS CHOPPED APPLES 1/2 TEASPOON NUTMEG, OR CINNAMON, OR MIXED 4-5 TABLESPOONS SUGAR 2-3 TABLESPOONS LEMON JUICE I TEASPOON GRATED LEMON RIND HOT WATER Use any kind of bread crumbs. Pour butter over them here and there, mixing with a fork to have all crumbs evenly buttered. Arrange crumbs and apples in layers in buttered pan or baking dish beginning and ending with a layer of crumbs. Sugar and spice each layer, and sprinkle over it some lemon juice and rind. Add enough hot water to moisten but do not have it too wet. Bake 30-40 minutes. Eat with Whipped Evaporated Milk or with Brown Sugar Hard Sauce (see recipe). Or eat with heavy cream and sugar.
A straightforward layered apple pudding, written for camp cooking where the oven is whatever you have. The original gives a baking time but no temperature, so set it yourself.
- Oven temperatureBake at 350–375F for the stated 30–40 minutes, until the apples are tender and the top crumbs are browned. In a Dutch oven, use a bed of coals underneath and a heavier layer on the lid; in a reflector oven, work from a bright bed and turn the pan once.
- Bread crumbsThe recipe says any kind will do; soft crumbs torn or grated from a stale loaf give the best texture. Dry packaged crumbs absorb more liquid and can pack into a paste; if that is all you have, use rather less and increase the water slightly.
- How much hot waterThis is the hinge of the dish. The recipe says only "enough hot water to moisten"; with juicy apples a few tablespoons will generally do it — just enough to steam them. Too much and the lower crumb layers dissolve into mush instead of holding their shape.
- ApplesFirm tart apples hold their layers: Granny Smith, Braeburn, Northern Spy. Four cups chopped is roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb, three or four medium apples. Sweet soft varieties will collapse and need less sugar.
- Pan size and yieldAn 8-inch square dish or a 9-inch pie plate suits this quantity. It serves four to six, and it is better warm than hot — the juices set a little as it cools.
- Whipped evaporated milkEvaporated milk whips only when very cold; chill the can, the bowl and the beaters, and expect a light foam rather than true whipped cream. It deflates within twenty minutes or so, so whip it at the last moment.
- Spice and lemonHalf a teaspoon of nutmeg or cinnamon spread across three or four layers is restrained by modern taste; a full teaspoon is not out of place. The lemon juice and rind are doing real work here, cutting the sugar and keeping the apples from tasting flat.