Apple Tansy - Testing

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 421

1 - Very interesting! The instructions I worked out are pretty good. It ends up making a kind of thin apple soufflé, but not quite. I had no rose water but I'm curious to taste what it (or other flavoring agents) might do.

2 - The bottom seems to tend to scorch, the meringue being so delicate. I'm baking it like a souffle instead.

3 - Baking it seems to work fine! 30 minutes is good. I'm tempted to try reducing the sugar to 1/3 cup.

4 - Tried it with 1/3 cup and Ben thought it wasn't sweet enough. It could be that it needs more apple (I didn't have the full 500g) but I think I agree. Since a 1/2 cup is too much for me, I will offer a range, and next time I make this I will use 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp (or a rounded 1/3 cup) of sugar. Everything else is spot on. NOTE: Upon re-reading the original, it seems I'm supposed to fold the cooked tansy kind of like an omelette but with the apple inside! What?!?

(1760?)

3 medium apples (500g), peeled, cored and cut in eighths
1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter
4 eggs, separated 
4 tsps. water
1 Tbsp rose water (or 1 tsp vanilla)
Dash nutmeg
½ 1/3 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In an oven-proof 8" fry pan fry the apples in a single layer in the butter over medium-high heat just until soft. Remove from the heat. Watch carefully, they can scorch quickly.
3. Whip together the egg yolks, water, rose water, nutmeg and sugar until the yolks triple in volume.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff-but-not-dry peaks form.
5. Gently stir in a big spoonful of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it, then pour this into the remaining white, gently folding to incorporate and also to preserve as much loft as possible in the whites. If there are white bits left in the mix, no worries.
6. Spread the meringue over the apples in the hot pan and immediately put in the oven. Bake 30 minutes or until the meringue browns nicely on top.  
7. ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS: Pour this over the apples in the pan and fry for about 5-6 minutes or until the underside starts to brown. Set the oven to broil and brown the top before serving.

1760's instructions:

"Three or four apples pare and slice and fry in a little of butter till soft, take the yolks of 4 eggs and 4 spoonfuls of water, and rose-water, and nutmeg and sugar and beat well together, and whip the whites of the eggs to sno' and stir it in, and pour over the soft apples in the pan, and let it cook till set, brown the top side before the fire [under the grill in a modern stove] and fold with the apple pulp inside and dredge sugar and serve."

Apple Pasties

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p. 420

'(1600) Cook the quartered apples with sugar and stick of cinnamon, add a piece of fresh butter, some lemon juice and orange-flower water. Put the mixture into thin pastry cases, seal well, and fry them. Dredge sugar and serve hot.'

1 recipe Cookie Pie Crust (is this enough for 4 pasties?)
1 egg, beaten
1 quarter cup sugar
3 medium apples
cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp orange water
1 Tbsp butter

1. Core, peel and quarter the apples. Cook with the sugar, cinnamon stick and lemon juice until the apple softens but does not lose its shape. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and orange water. Allow to cool completely so as not to melt the dough.
2. Prepare the dough and separate into 4 balls. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Roll out to about 9 inches across. Plop a quarter of the cool apple mixture in the middle of each circle of dough. 
3. Brush all around the edges of the dough circles with egg. Seal the edges by drawing opposite sides together, brush a bit more egg along the side of the sealed edges and fold over. 
4. Either fry in butter, (I think?) or bake in a 425F oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350F and cook another 45 minutes or until golden (if baked, I likely don't need to cook the apple, and should use cinnamon powder instead of the stick).

Untested - Friar's Omelet

Food in Enlgand, Dorothy Hartley, p 420

Other reference : http://www.food.com/recipe/bacon-froise-19306

1-2 Tbsps butter
1 lb (about 3 med) apples, peeled, cored and coarsely sliced
1 egg, separated
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 Tbsps sugar
Dash each of cinnamon and nutmeg

1. In a small bowl mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. In a bowl mix together flour and sugar, then whisk in the milk and egg yolk. In a mixing bowl leave the egg white.
3. Heat the butter in a large fry pan until it bubbles and crackles, then add the apple and fry until they become soft. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the egg white until stiff peaks form.
5. Wipe the juices out of the pan and melt some fresh butter to cook the dough.
6. Now, gently fold in the whisked egg white into the batter and pour the whole batch into the hot pan.
7. OR TRY THIS: pour in half the batter, cook a bit, then add apple and our the rest of the batter on top. Cover with a lid and when the top starts to set flip and continue cooking without the lid.
8. Allow the top to set before spooning the apples onto it and sprinkle with the sugar mix, and then fold the batter in half like you would an omelet.
9. Scootch the omelet onto a serving plate and cut into slices and set in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves.
10. NOTE : you can sprinkle some icing sugar on top. 

Ancestral Apple Pie - Testing

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p 419

"Of all the delicates which Britons try
To please the palate or delight the eye,
Of all the sev'ral kinds of sumptuous fare,
There is none that can with applepie compare."

This is the beginning of the lovely poem in Hartley's book that gives the recipe for this pie. I'm so looking forward to decoding it into a contemporary recipe!

1 - I started out with maybe not quite 2 quinces, if a quince is about 200g. I had 325g and I need 400g. I don't know if this is part of it, but the quince were pretty old. I wasn't partial to the differences in texture, and pouring the orange blossom water through the vent meant that the flavor was just concentrated there. Maybe a bit more research would be warranted, but so far, it's fine but not great.

2 recipes of sweet pie crust
2 quince
1⁄2 - 3⁄4 cup brown sugar
4 apples (pippins in the poem)
Pinch ground cloves
2 tsps candied orange/lemon/lime peel
1 Tbsp orange blossom water

1. Core and peel the quince and dice.
2. Combine the quince and the brown sugar in a pot and cook to melt the sugar and release the juice from the quince. 
3. Meanwhile, core and peel the apples and slice.
4. When a deep red liquid has formed, add the cloves and candied peel.
5. Add the sliced apples and cook until apple just starts to soften.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool before adding the orange water.

Untested - Apple Butter

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p 418

Apples (as many as you have on hand)
1lb sugar x pint of pulp
1 clove x 4 pints of pulp

1. Wash apples and cut through the middle by laying it on its side to reveal the star inside.
2. Pop the cut apples in a large pot (stock pot or preserving pan) and add a little water or apple cider. Cook over low heat until the apples are a soft mush.
3. Press the mush through a coarse sieve or food mill until all that's left are the skins, the tough bits of the core and pips (it's good if some pips burst and the white insides go into the pulp - it shows that the mush has been cooked enough).
4. Measure the pulp and add the correct amount of sugar and cloves, as indicated in the ingredients list.
5. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves and boil until the mixture stiffens and coats the back of a spoon. It should reach the temperature of 240F.
6. Pack into sterilized jars and process in a water bath for 20 minutes. The flavour will improve with age.
7. Serving suggestions in the original text, below.

"In its stiffest form this was sometimes called apple cheese. Then it was almost candied, and turned out as a dessert dish, at Christmas, apple cheese was set at one end of the table, amber golden, and garnished with hazel nuts and whipped cream, and Damson cheese, ruby dark, garnished with white almonds, and with port wine poured over, at the other end of the table. It was made in all country houses at windfall apple time. The best was made of all one type of apple, but mixed apples, of all sorts, with a quince or two, made a delectable apple butter.
"Take all the windfall apples, wash them, but do not peel or core, and cut them across the core so as to cut through the pips - this is important for the flavour. Put into a deep preserving pan, start with a cup of cider or water, and cook slowly, covered closely, till all are a soft mush. Now press it through a coarse sieve; if sufficiently cooked, you will see the small white kernels of the pips going through the sieve with the apple pulp; nothing should be left in the sieve but the peels, and empty cores, and pips. Measure the pulp and add 1lb of sugar for each pint of pulp, and 1 clove to each 4 pints. Stir sugar into the pulp till dissolved, and cook slowly till clear, then boil till the stiff mixture coats the back of the spoon with golden gum.
"Pot into wide-mouthed jars and tie down. It improves with keeping up to a year. It should turn out firmly, with a very slight crystallising on the crust, but mellow, soft amber juice within."

Untested - Apple Pie (1767)

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p 418

1. I'm fascinated by the instruction to boil the peel and cores.

"Make a good Puff paste crust and lay some round the sides of the dish, quarter the apples thick, throw in some sugar with a little lemon peel minced fine, and a clove here and there, and then the rest of the apples. Boil the cores and peel, with a blade of mace, and some more sugar till it be very good [i.e., a thick syrup], pour over so that the dish is full, put on your upper crust and bake. Serve it smoking hot, with sugar dredged upon it and cream with it."

2 recipes of pie crust
2 1⁄2 lbs apples
1⁄3 + 1⁄4 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon peel, finely minced (or try 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar)
6 whole cloves
A fragment of mace

1. Roll out half the pie dough and line the pie plate with it. Evenly sprinkle in 1⁄3 cup of sugar and the lemon peel, and distribute the cloves.
2. In a saucepan mix in 1⁄4 cup of the sugar and all of the mace.
3. Peel and core the apples. As you're going along, mix the peelings and cores in the saucepan blend, and slice the apple flesh into 1⁄4" thick wedges. 
4. Arrange the apple flesh in the lined pie plate.
5. Bring the apple peel and core and sugar to a boil and cook until it turns into a thick syrup (like, soft candy stage or just thick?).
6. Pour over the apples.
7. Roll out the top crust and lay it over the pie, dampening the edges and pinching either with your fingers or with a fork.
8. Bake at 375F for 40-60 minutes, rotating front-to-back halfway through. (May need to protect the edges of the crust for 20 minutes if it tends to burn?)

Untested - 18th Century Apple Soup

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p 417

(Titled MS. of 1800)

"Five pints of mutton broth, three or four pounds of windfall apples, cut up but not peeled or cored. Simmer the apples in the broth till soft, and press all through a strainer; season with a very small pinch of ginger [better in this than pepper], salt and reheat with a handful of pearl barley and cook gently till the barley is soft.
"This is an excellent winter night soup."

11 cups mutton broth
3-4 lbs apples
Scant pinch of powdered ginger
Salt
1⁄2 cup pearl barley

1. While broth is coming up to a boil, roughly chop the whole apples.
2. Add the apples to the broth and simmer until the largest pieces of apple are soft.
3. Press through a strainer or food mill to remove the apple pits, cores and skins.
4. Add the ginger, salt and pearl barley.
5. Return to a simmer and cook for 25-35 minutes or until the barley is cooked.