No. 2990

Apples a la Giudici

Pommes a la Giudici

Remove the cores from a dozen small pretty apples; peel them evenly and cook them in a light syrup of about twelve degrees. As soon as done, drain and place them in a vessel to cover with a hot vanilla syrup of thirty degrees. With a large vegetable spoon (Fig. 91) scoop out about thirty round balls from some large apples, blanch, drain and place them in another vessel containing a hot syrup colored with carmine. With the apple parings and a few more apples prepare some marmalade with vanilla; reduce till somewhat thick and with this fill a dozen small Savarin molds to the top, and let harden. Have a pastry cutter of the same diameter as the Savarin molds and with it cut out a dozen round pieces of cooked brioche a quarter of an inch thick; bestrew them with sugar and range on a baking sheet, then place them in the oven to glaze; mask this glazed side with currant jelly. Dress on each one the apple paste borders, having had them cooked in the Savarin molds, and fill up the hollow centers with vanilla frangipane (No. 44) mixed with a salpicon of pineapple cut in dice, and on top dress the apples that have been previously drained and covered with a layer of lightly tinted pink jelly. Dredge over with finely chopped pistachios, fill the empty spaces in the apples with vanilla frangipane and on top set a small round croquette made of chestnut puree (No. 3017). Range these dressed apples in a circle on a dish, fill the middle with the small apple balls, mixed with a few whole pistachios, the whole mingled with some apple jelly (No. 3668). Serve separately a sauce made of the apple juice thickened with a little apricot marmalade (No. 3675) and flavored with kirsch.

← No. 2989 Timbale of Noodles a la Pearsall Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 2991 Apples a la Nelson →

For the Modern Kitchen

A full-dress Delmonico's entremet: poached whole apples set on glazed brioche discs ringed with apple paste, filled with frangipane, and served with a kirsch sauce. Nothing in it is difficult, but it is an assembly job and the parts want to be made in order over two days.

Degrees of syrupThe numbers are degrees Baume, read with a saccharometer. Twelve degrees is a thin poaching syrup, roughly 1 cup sugar to 3 cups water; thirty degrees is a heavy syrup, roughly equal weights sugar and water. A cheap refractometer or Brix hydrometer will get you close enough - 12 Be is about 22 Brix, 30 Be about 55.
The hinge: poach, do not stewThe whole apples must hold their shape through three moves — poaching, draining, steeping in vanilla syrup — and then carry frangipane and a chestnut croquette on top. Poach them barely tender at a bare simmer, 10-15 minutes depending on variety, and let them finish softening off the heat in the syrup. Any apple that collapses is unusable here. Firm baking varieties hold up; Golden Delicious and Fuji work, McIntosh does not.
Vegetable spoonFig. 91 is a melon baller. "Blanch" the thirty scooped balls means a brief dip in boiling water, under a minute, then straight into the pink syrup so they take colour without going to mush.
CarmineCochineal-based red, sold now as carmine or natural red 4, and still available from cake-decorating suppliers. It is an insect-derived colour, so not vegetarian; beet powder or a drop of modern red colouring gives the same effect.
Savarin moldsSmall ring molds, about 3 inches across — a mini bundt or doughnut-shaped silicone mold stands in. The apple marmalade is packed in and chilled until it sets to a firm paste, then unmolded as a ring on the brioche disc. Reduce the marmalade further than seems necessary; it must be stiff enough to hold a wall.
Glazing the briocheSugared brioche rounds go into a hot oven, or better under a broiler, only until the sugar caramelizes - a minute or two. They are structural, so cut them from day-old brioche, which slices cleanly at a quarter inch.
Cross-referencesFrangipane (No. 44) is Ranhofer's pastry-cream-based almond filling, not the modern almond-butter tart filling; a vanilla pastry cream with ground almonds beaten in is the equivalent. No. 3017 is a chestnut puree croquette, shaped here into small rounds. Nos. 3668 and 3675 are apple jelly and apricot marmalade, both of which can be bought.
Yield and serviceTwelve individual portions, arranged in a ring on one large platter with the pink apple balls in apple jelly heaped in the centre. The kirsch sauce goes round separately. Note that the book files this among the hot entremets, though the jellies and frangipane argue against serving it hot enough to melt them.

A Little History

This is No. 2990 of Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it shows the house style plainly: a simple fruit entremet built up through six or seven separate preparations, each cross-referenced to another number in the book. Named dishes like this one — "à la Giudici," alongside the neighbouring Nelson and Pearsall — commemorated patrons, colleagues and occasions, and Ranhofer rarely explained who they were; the Giudici honoured here is not identified in the book. What the dish does record is the late-nineteenth-century restaurant kitchen's confidence with sugar: syrups measured by hydrometer in degrees Baumé, fruit held in graded strengths of syrup so it candied slowly without breaking, and colour supplied by carmine. Apples appear constantly in this section because they were cheap, kept all winter, and gelled on their own — the apple jelly binding the centre of the platter is itself a separate preparation, cross-referenced as No. 3668.