No. 2996

Apples, Nubian—Meringued

Pommes Meringuees a la Nubienne

Cut in four eight fine apples; peel, core and round the angles, rub them over with lemon, and range them in a sautoir one beside the other; cover lightly with melted butter, and bestrew with vanilla sugar, then place a sheet of buttered paper over and cook in a slack oven. Butter and sugar a plain border mold (Fig. 138), fill it to the top with cream rice flavored with vanilla (No. 160), and finished with a few egg-yolks; lay it on a baking tin with water to reach to half its height, and set in a slack oven to harden. Spread a layer of the same rice on the bottom of a dish, unmold the border on this, and mask the inside with apricot marmalade (No. 3675); on this range the cooked quartered apples in a pyramid, and glaze them over with apricot marmalade (No. 3675); cover it with meringue (No. 140), shaping it like a dome over all; smooth it with a knife, and decorate the entire surface with rows of beads, having the largest at the base and decreasing at the top, made of the same, sticking a small piece of almond into each one. Dredge with sugar, and put the dish in a very slack oven to color the meringue slightly.

← No. 2995 Apples in Surprise Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 2997 Apple "pain" with Vanilla →

For the Modern Kitchen

A three-part construction from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen: baked apple quarters, a molded vanilla rice ring, and a meringue dome. Nothing here is difficult, but the components have to be built in the right order and the oven kept low throughout.

Oven temperatures"Slack" is usually read as something like 275-300F, with the "very slack" oven for coloring the meringue lower still; the book gives no figures, so these are conventions rather than fixed values. The point at every stage is to cook without browning until the final coloring, so an oven thermometer is worth using.
SautoirA wide, straight-sided shallow pan — a modern sauté pan or a shallow baking dish will do. The apples must sit in a single layer, touching but not stacked, or they steam into sauce.
The applesEight apples in quarters gives 32 pieces, enough for the pyramid. "Round the angles" means trimming the sharp edges off each quarter so they hold shape and pile neatly. Use a firm baking apple that will not collapse; the lemon rub is only to stop browning.
Buttered paperA round of parchment laid directly on the fruit, buttered side down. Foil traps too much steam; the paper lets the apples cook through while the sugar and butter reduce around them.
Cream rice (No. 160)A cross-reference to the book's sweet rice preparation: rice simmered slowly in sweetened vanilla milk until very soft and thick. This recipe then finishes it with "a few egg-yolks." It needs to be stiff enough to hold a mold — soupy rice will not unmold.
The border moldA plain ring mold, buttered and dusted with sugar. Setting it in a tin of water to half its depth is a bain-marie; the water keeps the yolk-bound rice from curdling at the edges as it firms.
Apricot marmalade (No. 3675)A cross-reference to the book's apricot preparation, a cooked and sieved apricot conserve used much as apricot glaze is used now. Warm it before brushing so it flows and sets clear.
Meringue (No. 140)A cross-reference to the book's meringue. Form the beads with a plain tube, largest at the base as the recipe directs, and press the small piece of almond into each while the surface is still tacky.
YieldThe recipe gives no yield. Assemble it the same day: the meringue weeps and the rice stiffens if it sits overnight.

A Little History

Pommes meringuées à la Nubienne comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Nineteenth-century French kitchen naming borrowed geography freely, and garnish names like à la Nubienne are generally traced to color rather than to any Nubian dish — the darkening of a meringue or a sugar glaze. The dish itself is a set piece of the period's entremets de douceur: a molded rice border, fruit heaped inside it, and a piped meringue dome. The cross-references to numbered recipes for cream rice, apricot marmalade and meringue are typical of the book, which assumes a brigade with those preparations already standing ready rather than a single cook starting from nothing.