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Apple Meringue
Pare and core seven large apples and bake in a shallow plate until soft but not broken. Beat the yolks of three eggs with three tablespoonfuls of finely-powdered sugar, a little salt and a pint of scalded milk. Pour this over the baked apples, which have been piled up in the form of a pyramid. Bake until the custard is firm; then remove and allow to cool. Make a meringue of the whites of the three eggs by beating them till foamy, gradually adding three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and a little lemon, flavoring and beat until quite stiff. Place this over the apples and place in the oven to brown.
A baked apple custard finished with meringue, written for a cook who already knows how custard behaves. The custard, not the apples, is where it succeeds or fails.
- Do not let the custard boilThree yolks to a pint of milk is a loose set, and direct heat will curdle it into sweet scrambled egg. Bake at 325F, ideally in a pan of hot water, and pull it when the centre still trembles — about 170-175F on a thermometer.
- "Powdered sugar"In 1896 this meant granulated sugar ground fine, closest to today's caster or superfine sugar. Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch; it will work in the meringue but dulls the custard.
- A pint of scalded milkTwo US cups. Scalding was originally a safety and flavour step for raw milk; with pasteurised milk it simply warms it, which helps the custard set evenly. Let it cool slightly before it meets the yolks or you will cook them on contact.
- Oven for the applesThe recipe gives no heat for this step. A moderate oven, around 350F, for roughly 25-35 minutes will take apples soft but not broken, depending on the variety. Choose apples that hold shape — Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy — rather than McIntosh, which collapses.
- The pyramidSeven whole cored apples stacked will slump once soft. Build it in a deep dish that supports the sides, or halve some apples to make a stable base layer. The custard is poured over, not into, so the dish needs enough depth to hold two cups of liquid.
- "A little lemon"The text reads "a little lemon, flavoring," which may mean lemon extract; it can also be read as grated zest of half a lemon or a scant teaspoon of juice. Acid helps the whites hold, but too much juice will thin the meringue.
- Browning the meringueAfter the custard has cooled, brown the meringue quickly at 425F for 4-6 minutes, or under a broiler with the door watched. A long slow bake at 300F dries it firmer and weeps less if the dessert is to stand.
- YieldSeven apples serves six to eight. It is best the day it is made; refrigeration softens the meringue and leaches syrup from the apples.
Apple meringue belongs to a large family of nineteenth-century puddings in which fruit, a thin egg custard and a whipped-white topping were combined in one dish — closely related to the English queen of puddings and to French "pommes meringuées." Oscar Tschirky, who managed the Waldorf dining rooms and put his name to this 1896 collection, was compiling as much as inventing: the book gathers hundreds of standard dishes of the era alongside hotel specialities, and a homely baked apple custard sat comfortably in the same volume as terrapin and canvasback duck. The recipe's economy is characteristic of the period, three eggs doing double duty as both the custard and its crown, and the decorative pyramid reflects a table style in which desserts were expected to be built up and presented whole rather than portioned in the kitchen.