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German Tart
6 tablespoonfuls Crisco 3/4 cupful flour 3/4 cupful potato flour 1 tablespoonful sugar 3 apples 3/4 cupful prunes 4 tablespoonfuls sugar
This entry is an ingredient list only — the original gives no method, no pan size and no oven temperature, so the working details below are inferred from standard practice for a shortcrust fruit tart of the period.
- Crisco, and what six tablespoons meansCrisco was launched as an all-vegetable hydrogenated shortening and behaves like modern shortening in pastry. Six tablespoons is 3/4 stick's worth by volume, about 75 g; use it cold and cut it into the flours rather than creaming it.
- Potato flour is potato starchIn 1913 "potato flour" generally meant the fine white starch sold today as potato starch, rather than the modern flour ground from dried whole potato. Starch is what makes this crust short and sandy; whole-potato flour will absorb far more liquid and give a tougher result.
- The liquid the list omitsThree-quarters cup each of flour and starch with only fat and a tablespoon of sugar will not come together. Expect to need 2-3 tablespoons of ice water, or an egg yolk, to bring the dough to a paste, and a pinch of salt, which the list also leaves out.
- The two sugars are for two placesThe two sugars are probably for two places -- the single tablespoon most likely belongs in the dough and the four tablespoons to the fruit, though the list does not say so. Keep them separate rather than combining them.
- The prunes need cooking firstThree-quarters of a cup of dried prunes should be soaked and stewed until plump, then pitted and drained before they go anywhere near the pastry. Raw dried fruit under sliced apple will stay leathery, since the apples release moisture but not enough to rehydrate it.
- Oven temperatureThe original gives none. A tart of this kind will take a hot start and a moderate finish: something like 425F for the first 10-15 minutes to set the crust, then 350F until the apples are tender, perhaps 30-35 minutes more.
- Pan and yieldThe quantities would suit an 8- or 9-inch shallow tart tin or pie plate, pressed rather than rolled if the dough is crumbly. It should serve about six.
The Story of Crisco (1913) was written by Marion Harris Neil for Procter & Gamble, which had introduced Crisco two years earlier as a hydrogenated cottonseed-oil shortening — a product with no butter, no lard and, crucially for the book's marketing, no animal fat at all: pastry made with lard was closed to vegetarians and to kosher cooks, and the book pressed that advantage hard. The tart is German in the loose American sense of Central European baking, where potato starch was used to lighten and shorten doughs; apple with stewed prunes is a familiar pairing in that tradition.