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Compote of Apples
This is but another term for apples stewed in syrup. A compote of fruit is understood to be different from stewed fruit, in being richer with sugar and the fruit being either whole or in large pieces.
Fine ripe apples of a kind that have proved to be good to cook make a delightful sweet dish for tea in this way: 4 large apples. 1 cupful of sugar. 1/2 cupful of water. Piece of orange peel or lemon peel, or cloves, or stick cinnamon for flavoring. Put the sugar, orange peel and water on to boil in a deep saucepan. Pare the apples, cut each one in three and cut out the cores. Drop three or four pieces at a time into the boiling syrup, and let simmer about fifteen minutes, or until done and almost transparent; take them out with a fork, and cook some more in the same syrup, and so on till all are done. Serve in dessert saucers. The apples can be colored pink by adding red fruit juice or currant jelly to the syrup.
A straightforward stovetop compote that depends almost entirely on choosing the right apple and keeping the syrup at a bare simmer.
- The hinge: a bare simmerThe pieces must poach, not boil. A rolling syrup knocks the wedges apart before they turn translucent; keep the pan at the barest bubble and cook in small batches as directed so the temperature does not crash.
- Apple choice"A kind that have proved to be good to cook" means a firm apple that holds its shape: Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady. McIntosh and most older sauce apples collapse into puree in this syrup.
- Fifteen minutes is a maximumFifteen minutes is a guide, not a fixed time -- the recipe itself says "about fifteen minutes, or until done and almost transparent." Firm modern varieties cut in thirds may be ready in 8-12 minutes; test with a skewer at eight, when the flesh should give easily while the edges still hold.
- Syrup ratioOne cup sugar to half a cup water is roughly a two-to-one heavy syrup, near 200 g sugar to 120 ml water. It will thicken as apple juice cooks out, so add a spoonful of water if it starts to look like caramel.
- CupfulIn American books of this period a cupful is the standard half-pint, 8 fl oz, the same as a modern measuring cup.
- FlavoringsUse a wide strip of peel pared with a vegetable peeler so no white pith goes in, and pull it out before serving. Three or four cloves is plenty for four apples; a whole cinnamon stick can stay in the pan the entire time.
- The pink coloringCurrant jelly is the better of the two options given, since it adds pectin and gloss along with the color. Whisk a tablespoon or two into the hot syrup until dissolved before the first batch goes in.
- Yield and servingFour apples serve four. Cool the pieces in a single layer, boil the leftover syrup down by half if it is thin, and pour it over. Good warm or chilled, with cream or a plain cookie.
Compote is French in name and in method, from Old French composte, ultimately from Latin compositus, "put together"; in French cookery the word had settled into its narrower kitchen meaning -- whole or large pieces of fruit poached in a heavy syrup and served in their own liquid -- well before the nineteenth century. The distinction this recipe opens with, between compote and stewed fruit, turns on little more than sugar and on whether the fruit keeps its shape, which is why the recipe troubles to spell it out.