No. 3127

Frothy Puree of Apples

Puree de Pommes Mousseuse

Peel six fine apples, cut them up small and cook in a covered saucepan, keeping them very white and adding four spoonfuls of water, a bit of lemon peel and two cloves. When melted press them through a fine sieve, then add seven or eight dissolved gelatine leaves, the juice of four or five lemons and eight or ten ounces of powdered sugar; beat the preparation well on ice with a whip until it whitens and becomes quite frothy, then add a salpicon of candied fruits, and pour this into a mold incrusted in chopped ice. One hour later dip the mold in hot water, unmold the contents on a cold dish and pour over a cold apple syrup flavored with lemon peel.

Apple Syrup.-This syrup is made with the liquid in which apples have been cooked and half its weight of sugar added; flavor with lemon or orange peel, boil until it attains the consistency of light jelly, then strain and cool. It is now ready to be used.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A gelatine-set apple mousse from Ranhofer's Delmonico's repertoire, built to be whipped cold and turned out of a mold. The hinge is temperature: the puree must be cold enough that the gelatine is just beginning to thicken when you start whipping, or it will never aerate and will set dense.

Gelatine leavesNineteenth-century leaves were not standardized; seven or eight of them corresponds to roughly 1/2 oz (14-16 g) of dry gelatine, or about two 1/4-oz envelopes of powdered. Bloom sheets in cold water and squeeze, or soften powder in a little cold water, then dissolve in a few spoonfuls of the hot apple puree rather than adding it dry.
Spoonfuls"Four spoonfuls of water" most likely means tablespoons, about 1/4 cup. It is only there to keep the apples from catching before they release their own juice.
Keeping them very whiteCook covered over low heat with no browning at all, and use a stainless or enameled pan. Quick-collapsing apples such as Bramley or McIntosh break down into the smooth puree this wants; firmer keepers need longer cooking.
The lemon juiceFour or five lemons is roughly 3/4 to 1 cup of juice, which is aggressive against six apples. Add half, taste against the sugar, then add the rest as you like it. The acidity is partly why the eight to ten ounces of sugar is not excessive.
SalpiconA salpicon here is simply candied fruit cut into small, even dice, about 1/4 inch. Toss it in a little of the sugar so it disperses rather than sinking; fold it in when the mixture has thickened enough to hold it.
Whipping on iceSet the bowl in ice water and whisk steadily; a hand mixer does this in five to ten minutes. Stop when the mass has lightened, roughly doubled and holds a soft ribbon. Whip too long past the setting point and it will break into a grainy foam.
Mold incrusted in chopped iceThe original packs the mold in chopped ice because there was no refrigerator. A metal mold in the refrigerator for two to three hours does the same work, though the stated one hour assumes the harder chill of ice.
UnmoldingDip the mold in hot water for five to ten seconds only, no longer, or the outer layer slumps. Loosen the edge with a fingertip and turn onto a chilled plate.
The syrupReserve the cooking liquid from the apples; there will not be much, so add a little water. Half its weight in sugar, boiled to a light syrup that coats a spoon, then strained and chilled. It will thicken further as it cools, so pull it early.
YieldSix apples, this much gelatine and sugar make about 1.5 quarts of aerated mixture, serving eight to ten as a cold entremets.

A Little History

This is No. 3127 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the food he cooked over three decades at Delmonico's in New York. Puree de pommes mousseuse belongs to a family of cold gelatine entremets that filled the sweet course of a formal French-service dinner: fruit reduced to a puree, set lightly, whipped to a foam over ice and molded. Such dishes were a display of a kitchen's ice supply as much as its skill, since the whole procedure depends on a supply of chopped ice and a cold room; Ranhofer's instruction to "incrust" the mold in ice is a plain reminder that mechanical refrigeration was not yet standard in American restaurant kitchens. The apple itself was the cheap, ubiquitous fruit of the period, and the syrup made from its cooking water reflects a professional habit of wasting nothing that carried flavor.