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Apple Cheesecakes
812. Take three-quarters of a pound of apples, scald and pulp them, half a pound of lump sugar, half a pound of butter melted, eight yolks and four whites of eggs, the grated peel and juice of two lemons; bake in patty-pans lined with a good paste.
A tartlet filling in the lemon-curd family: apple pulp enriched with butter, sugar and a great many egg yolks. The hinge is temperature — this is a custard, and a hot oven will scramble it or make it weep.
- No cheese involvedAn English "cheesecake" of this period is a small tart with a rich curd filling, so called because the earliest versions used curds. Nothing here is dairy beyond the butter.
- Quantities in modern termsThree-quarters of a pound of apples is about 12 oz (340 g) untrimmed fruit, which cooks down to roughly a cup of thick pulp. Half a pound each of sugar and butter is 8 oz (225 g) apiece.
- Scald and pulpCook the apples covered with a splash of water until collapsing, then push through a sieve. The purée should be stiff enough to hold a spoon mark; if it is loose, dry it out over low heat or the filling will not set.
- Lump sugarLoaf or lump sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone, crushed before use. Ordinary granulated or caster sugar is the direct substitute.
- The eggsEight yolks and four whites is a deliberate ratio rather than an error; the extra yolks give richness and a soft set. Add them to the melted butter and warm pulp off the heat, stirring, so they do not seize.
- Patty-pans and pastePatty-pans are shallow tartlet or muffin tins. "A good paste" means shortcrust or a rough puff; line the tins and chill or blind-bake briefly, since a wet custard filling will soften an unbaked base.
- OvenThe recipe gives no oven guidance. A moderate oven, around 350F (175C), for 20 to 25 minutes should set the filling at the edges while it barely trembles at the centre; it firms as it cools.
- YieldEnough filling for about 18 to 24 tartlets in standard patty-pans, depending on depth.
Small rich tarts under the name cheesecake run through English cookery from the seventeenth century onward, and the word had long since drifted away from curds: lemon cheesecakes, almond cheesecakes and apple cheesecakes all describe a buttery, egg-thickened filling baked in patty-pans. The heavy proportion of yolks to butter and sugar is the same arithmetic behind lemon curd and the filling of a Yorkshire curd tart. Apples earn their place because they store — a cook working through the winter had pulp to hand when little other fruit was available, and the two lemons here do the work of brightening it.