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Stewed Apples
1100. Pare evenly any good boiling apples of a pretty large size; take out the core with a scoop, and put them into a stewpan, with water enough to cover them. Add a little sugar, lemon-peel, and juice, if the apples require it. Stew them gently till quite tender, taking care not to break them. Take them out of the water, to which add sugar enough to make a rich syrup, and a peach leaf or teaspoonful of capillaire; boil it, and, when as thick as cream, pour it in the dish round the apples. A little colouring may be given to one side of the apple with cochineal, or the juice of red beet-root.
A whole poached apple dressed in its own reduced syrup, with two period flourishes — capillaire and cochineal — that need translating. The hinge is heat: the water must never do more than tremble, or the apples collapse and the point of the dish is lost.
- Bare simmer, not a stewDespite the title, this is gentle poaching. Bring the water barely to a shiver, around 180-190F, and hold it there; a rolling boil will split the apples and cloud the syrup. Reckon 15-25 minutes depending on size and variety, testing with a skewer at the shoulder rather than the middle.
- Choosing the apple"Any good boiling apple" is best read as a firm cooking variety that holds its shape, rather than one that collapses to sauce on contact with heat. Braeburn, Granny Smith or a firm russet will stay whole; leave the pared apples in acidulated water while you work so they do not brown.
- CapillaireSyrup of capillaire was a sweetened maidenhair-fern syrup, usually scented with orange-flower water, sold by the bottle for flavouring drinks and confectionery. It is rarely made now and hard to come by. A teaspoon of orange-flower water stirred into the finished syrup gives much the same perfumed effect.
- The peach leafPeach leaves were used as a cheap source of almond flavour, and like bitter almonds they contain cyanogenic compounds. Leave it out and use the orange-flower water, or a drop of almond extract, instead.
- "As thick as cream"The poaching liquid is sweetened and reduced separately. Add sugar to taste — roughly 4-6 oz to a pint of liquid — and boil hard until it coats a spoon and pours in a ribbon rather than a stream. It will thicken further as it cools, so stop a shade thin.
- Cochineal and beetrootCochineal is still sold as carmine or E120, and a beetroot works exactly as described: a little of its juice brushed on one cheek of each apple. Beetroot pink fades and browns in heat, so colour the apples after they are cooked and plated.
- Yield and servingOne apple per person; four large apples fill a shallow dish comfortably. Serve just warm or cold with the syrup spooned around, not over, so the apples keep their gloss, and with cream or a plain custard alongside.