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Fried Apples
Peel and core three large, good, sound apples. Slice them into slices half an inch thick. Dip them in cold milk, then roll them in flour. Melt one-half ounce butter in a frying pan. Place the apples in the pan and fry on a brisk fire until a nice golden colour on both sides, or two minutes for each side. Remove them with a skimmer and dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin. Besprinkle with a little powdered sugar and serve.
A plain fritter without batter: the milk-and-flour coating is all that stands between the apple and the pan. It works, but only if the pan is hot and the slices go in dry-floured and immediately.
- Choose a firm appleHalf-inch rings need to hold their shape through four minutes of frying, so use a firm variety — Granny Smith, Braeburn, Honeycrisp. A softer apple such as McIntosh will collapse into sauce in the pan.
- Flour just before fryingMilk-dipped slices floured in advance go gummy and the coating slides off. Coat one batch, put it straight into the fat, then coat the next.
- "One-half ounce butter"That is one tablespoon, which is barely enough for three apples' worth of slices and will brown and burn on a brisk fire. Expect to add more between batches, or use half butter and half a neutral oil so the milk solids do not scorch.
- "A brisk fire"Medium-high heat: the butter should sizzle steadily when a slice goes in but not smoke. Two minutes a side gives colour and leaves the apple with some bite; if you want them fully soft, lower the heat and allow four or five minutes a side.
- Do not crowd the panSlices touching each other steam rather than fry and the coating stays pale and damp. Work in batches with space between, and keep the finished ones warm in a low oven.
- "Dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin"A common period presentation for fried dishes — the cloth absorbs fat and keeps the pieces from sitting in it. A folded paper towel under the napkin does the job better, or drain on a rack.
- "Skimmer" and "powdered sugar"A skimmer is a flat perforated spoon; a slotted spatula is easier with apple rings. "Powdered sugar" in books of this period means a fine-ground sugar, and modern confectioners' or icing sugar is the usual substitute; a pinch of cinnamon with it is entirely in keeping.
- YieldThree apples give roughly 15 to 18 slices, enough for three or four as a dessert or two as a sweet breakfast dish. Serve at once — the coating softens within minutes.
Fried apples belong to the large family of European sweet fry-ups that sit between fritter and garnish, and this version — milk, flour, butter, sugar — is the frugal end of it, dispensing with the egg batter that a formal beignet de pommes would demand. Books of this period routinely gave the same treatment to apple, banana, pineapple and salsify, the coating being the point and the fruit interchangeable. The International Cook Book was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long a chef at Delmonico's in New York, and first appeared in 1906, with later printings; a dish this plain reads less as a national specialty than as basic kitchen technique written down for a home audience. Fried apples in butter also had a separate life as a savoury accompaniment to pork and to goose across Northern Europe and the American South, where the sugar was often dropped and the slices cooked in the meat fat instead.