No. 3126

Glazed Marmalade of Apples

Marmelade de Pommes Glacee

Cut a few good russet apples in four, peel and put them into a saucepan with a little water; dissolve on a slow fire while covered, then pass through a sieve; return the puree to the saucepan with two-thirds as much powdered sugar and a tied bunch of lemon peel. Set the saucepan on the fire and let the marmalade reduce while stirring unceasingly with a spoon. When perfect remove the lemon peel, and after it is nearly cold pour it into a dish, smooth it dome-shaped with a knife and sprinkle fine sugar over the top; glaze this with a skewer heated in the fire, cool off and surround the base with triangles of biscuit, placing a flat rosette of the same on the summit of the apples.

← No. 3125 Glazed Apples Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3127 Frothy Puree of Apples →

For the Modern Kitchen

A stiff apple paste rather than a spoonable sauce — the hinge is the reduction, which must go far enough that the marmalade holds a dome when cold. Ranhofer assumes a coal range and a salamander; both have straightforward substitutes.

Sugar proportion"Two-thirds as much powdered sugar" means two-thirds the weight of the sieved apple purée, not of the whole fruit. Powdered sugar here is finely ground granulated, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today; ordinary granulated works.
RussetsRusset apples are dense, dry and slightly tart, so they cook down to a thick paste with little water. Any firm cooking apple with low water content will do — Braeburn, Golden Russet, or a mix with Bramley for acidity. Avoid Red Delicious and other soft, watery eating apples.
The reductionDepending on the quantity and the pan, this can take upwards of half an hour of near-constant stirring over low heat. It is done when a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a track that closes slowly and the mass pulls away from the sides in a single mound. Under-reduced marmalade will slump instead of holding its dome.
Scorching"Stirring unceasingly" is not rhetoric. Once the purée thickens it catches instantly on the pan bottom and the burnt taste cannot be removed. Use a heavy-based pan and a wooden or silicone spatula that reaches the corners.
Lemon peelPare the zest in strips with no white pith and tie it in muslin so it can be lifted out whole. It flavours the mass throughout the reduction; lemon juice added at the end is not the same thing.
Glazing with a hot skewerA metal skewer or poker heated red in the fire was used to caramelise the sugared surface in stripes or a lattice. A cook's blowtorch does the same job with more control; a broiler set very high also works, though it softens the dome. Chill the marmalade thoroughly first.
"Biscuit"In Ranhofer's usage this is sponge biscuit — the batter behind ladyfingers and savoy biscuits — baked flat and cut into triangles, plus one round rosette for the top. Store-bought ladyfingers or thin sponge cake cut to shape are a fair stand-in.
YieldThe recipe gives no quantity beyond "a few good russet apples"; something on the order of 2 lb, reduced, will serve a handful of people. Turn the dish out and assemble the biscuit border shortly before serving, or the sponge goes damp.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the repertoire of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits among the cold entremets — the sweet dishes sent up between the roast and the dessert proper. Marmelade in this French sense means simply fruit cooked to a paste, not a citrus preserve with peel. The technique of moulding a reduced fruit paste into a dome and burning a pattern into its sugared surface with a heated iron belongs to the older confectioner's craft, before the gas salamander and the blowtorch. Russet apples were among the common American cooking apples of the period, valued for keeping through the winter in a cellar, which made a dish like this available long after the fresh-fruit season had closed.