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Grilled Apples
Peel and core four good-sized, sound apples, trim both ends, then cut each apple in three even slices. Lightly oil a double broiler, arrange apples on it and broil over a brisk fire for three minutes on each side, remove, sprinkle a very little powdered sugar over, dress on a hot dish and serve.
A four-ingredient side dish that depends almost entirely on cutting the slices thick enough to hold together over direct heat.
- Double broilerNot a double boiler. A double broiler is a hinged wire grill basket that clamps food between two grids so it can be flipped in one motion. A fish grilling basket does the same job; failing that, use a ridged cast-iron grill pan and turn the slices with a thin spatula.
- Brisk fireAn open coal or wood fire burned down to glowing embers, roughly what a hot charcoal grill or a preheated gas grill on high gives you. Under a domestic broiler element set to high, expect the slices to color more slowly and unevenly.
- Cutting the appleThree slices from a cored, end-trimmed apple gives fairly thick rings, on the order of three-quarters of an inch. Thinner rings are likelier to collapse in the basket before they brown.
- Apples that hold"Sound" here means firm and unbruised. Choose a variety that keeps its shape under heat, such as Braeburn, Golden Delicious or Granny Smith. Softer eating apples like McIntosh are apt to break down.
- Lightly oilOil the basket, not the fruit, and use a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Apple sticks readily to hot metal, and the sugars released at the cut surface make it worse.
- Powdered sugarIn period usage this generally meant finely ground sugar, not necessarily today's confectioners' sugar; either will serve. "A very little" is the operative phrase: the recipe sprinkles it after the apples come off the fire, so it is a dusting rather than a glaze.
- TimingThree minutes per side is right for a genuinely hot fire and half-inch rings. Judge by the grill marks and a slight give when pressed rather than the clock, and pull them while they still have structure.
- Yield and servingTwelve rings, enough for four as a side dish. The recipe calls for a hot dish but names no accompaniment; savoury meats are the obvious modern pairing.
Grilled or broiled apples belong to a long European habit of cooking fruit alongside rich, fatty meat, where the acidity cuts the fat and the sugars caramelize into something closer to a condiment than a dessert. The terse instruction, which assumes a hinged broiler and an open fire rather than a home range, reads as professional hotel and restaurant practice.