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Dried Apple Sauce
Look over, wash thoroughly and soak fifteen minutes in clean warm water; drain, cover with cold soft water, place on the stove, let boil slowly two to four hours, mash fine, sweeten, and season with cinnamon very highly. Never add sugar until about five minutes before removing from the stove, otherwise the fruit will be toughened and hardened. Follow the same directions in preparing dried peaches, only do not mash or season so highly. Cook in porcelain, without stirring. A few raisins added improve the apple sauce.
A pantry recipe from the era when dried fruit, not fresh, carried a household through late winter. The one thing worth keeping is the instruction about sugar; the four-hour boil is not.
- QuantityThe original gives no measure at all. Work by the recipe's own instruction: cover the drained fruit generously with cold water and add more as it is absorbed.
- Soft water"Soft water" meant rainwater or water low in dissolved minerals, as opposed to hard well water, which was believed to keep fruit and vegetables tough. Ordinary tap or filtered water is fine.
- Cooking timeTwo to four hours reflects apples dried hard in an attic or over a stove. Commercial dried apple rings are much softer and will collapse in 30 to 45 minutes of gentle simmering; check at 30 and add water if the pan goes dry.
- Sugar lastThis is the hinge and it is sound. Sugar in the water draws moisture out of the fruit and firms it, so unsweetened fruit softens faster. Add the sugar only once the apples are fully tender, then give it five minutes to dissolve.
- PorcelainMeans enamelled ironware, specified because bare iron and copper discolour acidic fruit and pick up a metallic taste. Any nonreactive pan works: enamelled cast iron, stainless steel, or a heavy nonstick saucepan.
- Without stirringThe original gives no reason for the instruction. It only works over low heat in a heavy pan; on a modern burner, use the lowest setting and a lid, or stir occasionally and accept a softer texture.
- Seasoning"Very highly" cinnamoned means considerably more than a modern pinch: start with a teaspoon of ground cinnamon per pound of dried apples and taste. The recipe does not say when the raisins are added; adding them near the end will keep them plumper.
- PeachesThe original says to follow the same directions for dried peaches, only without mashing and with a lighter hand on the spice; it gives no reason.
Dried apples were a mainstay of the American household through the nineteenth century: windfalls and seconds were pared, cored, strung or spread on trays, and dried until leathery, giving a fruit that kept well in a sack and cost almost nothing — a way of getting fruit onto the table in March. The warning against early sugar appears in other period cookbooks and turns out to be chemically defensible, since sugar in the cooking liquid slows the softening of plant tissue. The raisins at the end suggest a frugal dish being coaxed toward something more like a treat.