Waffles with Boiled Cider

Two lines that assume you already have the waffle recipe from the preceding page and know what boiled cider is. The syrup is the only thing actually being made here, and the proportions need some interpretation.

• What "cider" meansIn American cookbooks of this period "cider" usually means sweet, unfermented apple juice rather than the alcoholic drink the word signals in Britain, though hard cider was common too and the recipe does not say. Fresh unfiltered apple cider from a press is closest; ordinary bottled apple juice will work but reduces to something flatter and sweeter.
• The proportion is ambiguous"Twice as much cider as sugar" is almost certainly by volume — 2 cups cider to 1 cup sugar — but the original does not say, and by weight it would be a much sweeter syrup. Start with the volume reading and taste as it thickens.
• Boiled cider properTraditional boiled cider is cider alone, reduced to roughly a seventh of its starting volume, giving a dark, tart syrup with no added sugar at all. The version here is a quicker sweetened table syrup that borrows the name; do not expect the concentrated apple intensity of the New England product sold under that label.
• Judging syrup consistencyReduce over medium heat until it sheets from a spoon and coats it thinly — around 220-225F on a candy thermometer. It thickens noticeably as it cools, so stop while it still looks slightly loose.
• ScorchingSugar plus fruit acid catches quickly once the mixture is thick. Use a heavy pan, stir toward the end, and pull it off the heat before it darkens past amber.
• YieldTwo cups of cider with one cup of sugar gives roughly a cup of syrup, enough for four to six servings of waffles. It keeps several weeks covered in the refrigerator and pours better warmed.
• Waffle ironsA waffle iron of this period would have been a hinged cast-iron mould set over the stove and turned by hand. Any modern iron works.