Custard apple

“ The Custard apple growes on a tree full of branches and large leaves, and is a lively and lusty tree to look on; the fruit, when ’tis ripe, as big as the largest Pomewater, but just of the colour of a Warden. [72] When ’tis ripe, we gather it, and keep it one day, and then it is fit to be eaten. We cut a hole at the lesser end, (that it may stand the firmer in the dish) so big, as that a spoon may go in with ease, and with the spoon eat it. Never was excellent Custard more like it selfe, then this to it ”

“ Cooked entire, and without any addition, the well-flavored apple is among the most perfect and economical of the subacid fruits for every-day use, and for the invalid's tray is seldom surpassed. Baked in its own juice, with sugar and additional flavoring, or boiled in syrup, it is relished equally with the breakfast mush, the dinner meat, and the supper bread and cake. Combined with cream, custard, whipped white of egg, or tapioca, which add nutriment without destroying the fruit flavor, it affords a delicate dessert, inexpensive and easily prepared. ”

“ BAKED APPLE PUDDING, OR CUSTARD. Weigh a pound of good boiling apples after they are pared and cored, and stew them to a perfectly smooth marmalade, with six ounces of sugar, and a spoonful or two of wine; stir them often that they may not stick to the pan. Mix with them while they are still quite hot, three ounces of butter, the grated rind and the strained juice of a lemon, and lastly, stir in by degrees the well-beaten yolks of five eggs, and a dessertspoonful of flour, or in lieu of the last, three or four Naples’ biscuits, or macaroons crushed small. ”

“ Often it does not seem to occur to the housekeeper that it is quite practicable to carry a cup custard, a baked apple or pear, a tiny mould of jelly or blanc-mange, as well as uncooked fruit. While the latter is always wholesome and generally popular, there are times when one wants something else. To paraphrase Miss Woolson's words in "For the Major," "A large cold apple on a winter day is not calculated to arouse enthusiasm." ”

“ Time.—From 30 to 40 minutes to stew the apples; 10 minutes to stir the custard over the fire. Average cost, 2s., with cream at 1s. 6d. per pint. Sufficient for a moderate-sized trifle. Seasonable from August to March.
APPLES à la Portugaise.
Ingredients.—8 good boiling apples, 1⁄2 pint of water, 6 oz. of sugar, a layer of apple marmalade, 8 preserved cherries, garnishing of apricot jam. Mode.—Peel the apples, and, with a scoop, take out the cores; boil the fruit in the above proportion of sugar and water, without being too much done, and take care the apples do not break. ”

“ It has usually comparatively few seeds, and these are surrounded by a rich custard-like pulp, which in the better kinds is of very fine flavour, and is generally much liked. The fruit is not a good keeper, still, given careful handling and packing, it can be kept for nearly a week. All custard apples are easily raised from seed, but the better varieties are propagated by grafting strong seedlings with wood taken from a tree producing fruit of especial merit. Any good fruit soil will grow them, and they do not require any especial treatment. ”

“ Pare, core and quarter apples to fill an earthen crock or deep pudding dish, taking care to use apples of uniform degree of hardness and pieces of the same size. For two quarts of fruit thus prepared, add a cup of water and, if the apples are sour, a cup of sugar. Cover closely, and bake in a moderate oven several hours, or until of a dark red color. Sweet apples and quinces, in the proportion of two parts of apple to one of quince, baked in this way, are also good. Cut the apples into quarters, but slice the quinces much thinner as they are more difficult to cook. ”

“ It also comes early into bearing, and every other year yields large crops. The apples are above medium size, very regularly and handsomely formed, quite uniform, and very free from blemishes of any kind. The skin of the fruit is smooth, yellow, washed and streaked very beautifully with red, and covered with a light-blue bloom, which gives it such an attractive and showy appearance, that it will command at all times a ready sale in the markets. The flesh is yellowish-white, tender, juicy, and of a brisk sub-acid flavor. It is a splendid cooking apple, there being none to rival it in its season. ”

“ A small slice of fresh butter, and some finely grated nutmeg, are usually considered improvements to an apple pudding; the juice, and the grated rind of a lemon may be added with good effect, when the fruit is laid into the crust, especially in spring, when the apples generally will have become insipid in their flavour. For tables of any pretension, sugar must be added to them when they are made; but many varieties of apple do not so readily form a smooth light pulp when it is enclosed with them in the paste. ”

“ When this is done, core before paring, that fruit may keep in shape. In the fall, when apples are at their best, do not add spices to apples, as their flavor cannot be improved; but towards spring they become somewhat tasteless, and spice is an improvement.
Baked Sweet Apples Wipe and core eight sweet apples. Put in a baking-dish, and fill cavities with sugar, allowing one-third cup, or sweeten with molasses. Add two-thirds cup boiling water. 570Cover, and bake three hours in a slow oven, adding more water if necessary.
Apple Sauce Wipe, quarter, core, and pare eight sour apples. ”

“ In the summer and autumn, when the fruit is at its best, no additional flavor is needed. Toward spring, when it becomes less palatable, the deficiency may be best supplied with a little lemon juice and grated rind, a bit of pineapple or quince, a few drops of almond extract or rose water, or a few whole cloves. Sweet apples which are dry and rather tasteless may be utilized satisfactorily if stewed, canned or preserved with one-third their bulk of quince. ”

“ After providing a due proportion of apples for the table, and the ordinary purposes of cookery, I do not hesitate to express my opinion, that for all other uses, sweet apples are entitled to the preference. The best cider I ever tasted in this country, was made wholly of sweet apples. They afford also a nourishing food to man and all domestic animals. What furnishes a more delicate repast than a rich sweet apple baked and eaten with milk? I recollect the observation made to me by an observing farmer, before the American revolution, that nothing would fatten cattle faster than sweet apples. ”

“ Don’t let apples darken. Raw apple when cut often darkens from exposure to air. Some nuts also make raw apple darken, especially if the fruit has come in contact with iron in a knife blade or chopper.
So, when cutting apples for salad, protect them from darkening by mixing the pieces with fruit juice—lemon, orange, grapefruit, or pineapple—before adding other ingredients. Or, mix with salad dressing at once, for a protective coating.
Some like it tart. To give a sharper tang to a salad, especially if apples are mild in flavor, use a tart oil dressing, lemon juice, or a sour cream dressing. ”

“ It is a true revelation, in apples, of a capacity for flavor which we might look for in some rare tropical fruit, than in an apple from the extreme north. It is not a sweet apple, it is a deliciously sugared apple, as its name indicates, with a distinct aromatic acidity beneath the saccharine, like, yet unlike, the highest flavored strawberry. The season of Fameuse Sucre is from the middle of September until the last of October, or later. The tree seems as hardy as Fameuse; it is upright in growth, it spreads but gradually, its branches bear the bright gloss of health. ”

“ Spices destroy the true apple flavor, although Aunt Sarah used sassafras root, dug from the near-by woods, for flavoring her apple butter, and it was unexcelled. The apple butter, when cooked sufficiently, should be a dark rich color, and thick like marmalade, and the cider should not separate from it when a small quantity is tested on a saucer. An old recipe at the farm called for 32 gallons of cider to 8 buckets of cider apples, and to 40 gallons of apple butter 50 pounds of sugar were used. ”

“ Any recipe for the stewing of winter pears will answer for dried ones; and they must be soaked over-night to ensure their being tender. It is well to remember that the less water used, the more flavour in the pear, and the syrup should not be very abundant.
And now we come to that most useful of all fruits—the apple. This has been dried in many forms, and canned as well. The most recent are the evaporated apple rings—the apple cut into rounds horizontally through the fruit. ”

“ Mix with an equal quantity of rich cream, and strain into the freezing pot. Or, make a custard as follows: boil 1 pint milk, pour it whilst boiling on the yolks of 6 eggs; stir rapidly over the fire until it thickens, taking care not to curdle it. With a little experience a perfect custard may be thickened in this way in less than 7 minutes, a much longer time being required if the milk is not boiled. When cold, add pineapple pulp made as follows: Boil 1 lb. pineapple sliced and peeled, in 1 gill water for 10 minutes, pound the fruit and rub it through a sieve, add syrup or sugar to taste. ”

“ Sweet apples cook very badly—becoming tough, dry and tasteless. Green apples, if full grown, cook well, and have a pleasant acid.
For sauce, pare, core, and quarter or slice the apples. Wash the pieces in a cullender, and put them to stew, with only water enough to wet them a little. Apple stews that are thin and watery are disgraceful to the cook, or to the cook's mistress. Let them stew till you can mash them easily all through. Then take them off the fire, and sweeten them, adding the seasoning while the apples are warm. Season with rose-water, lemon juice, nutmeg ”

“ We cannot compete with machinery.
Apple Fritters.—Peel some apples, cut them in slices across the core, and stamp out the core. It is customary, where wine, &c., is not objected to, to soak these rings of apples for several hours in a mixture of brandy, grated lemon or orange peel and sugar, or better still, to rub some lumps of sugar on the outside of a lemon or orange and dissolve this in the brandy. Of course, brandy is not necessary, but the custom is worth mentioning. The rings of apple can be soaked for some time in syrup flavoured this way. ”

“ Whilst cooking is going on they will dry nicely on sheets of paper on the plate-rack. When the apples are quite dry, which is when the outside is not moist at all, fill them into brown paper bags and hang them up in an airy, dry place. The apples will be found delicious in flavour when stewed, and most acceptable when fresh fruit is scarce. I have dried several bushels of apples in this way every year.
APPLE DUMPLINGS.
Core as many apples as may be required. Fill the holes with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon; make a paste for a short crust, roll it out, and wrap each apple in it. ”

“ When the sugar has melted, stir it; set the kettle over the fire, and let it boil for a quarter of an hour after it has come to a boil; skimming it well. Have ready some fine, ripe pippin or bell-flower apples, pared, cored and sliced. There must be apple enough to weigh four pounds, when cut up. Put it into the syrup, adding the grated rinds of four large lemons. Let it simmer, stirring it well, till the apple is all dissolved, and forming a smooth mass. Then add the juice of the lemons; boil it fast; and continue boiling and stirring, till it becomes a very thick marmalade. ”

“ Pour in enough boiling water to fill the dish one-fourth full. Bake them in an insulated oven for one-half to three-quarters of an hour, depending upon the size and ripeness of the apples. The stones should be heated until the paper test shows a golden brown colour.
Baked Spiced Apples 6 apples 30 cloves 2 cups water 2⁄3 cup sugar 6 slices lemon
Pare the apples, remove the cores and stick five whole cloves into each apple. Make a syrup of the water and sugar. Put the apples into a pudding dish, pour the syrup over them, and place a slice of lemon over the top of each. ”

“ Unless the apples are very juicy, add half a cup of cold water, and unless quite tart, have mixed with the water the juice of half a lemon. Cover and bake about one hour. Remove the cover toward the last, that the top may brown lightly. Serve with cream. Berries or other acid fruits may be used in place of apples, and rice or cracked wheat mush substituted for bread crumbs.
Apple Sandwich No. 2.—Prepare and stew some apples as for sauce, allowing them to become quite dry; flavor with lemon, pineapples, quince, or any desired flavor. Moisten slices of zwieback in hot cream as for toast. ”

“ We picked up enough to fill both of Uncle Joe's cider-barrels, Westbury and I hauled them to the mill, and the next day Elizabeth was boiling down the sweet juice into apple-butter, which is one of the best things in the world.
There is work about making apple-butter. It is not just a simple matter of putting on some juice and letting it boil. Apples must go into it, too, a great many of them, and those apples must be peeled and sliced, and stirred and stirred eternally. And then you will find that you need more apples, more peeling and slicing, and more stirring and stirring, oh yes, indeed. ”

“ What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labelled, "To be eaten in the wind."
Of course no flavors are thrown away; they are intended for the taste that is up to them. Some apples have two distinct flavors, and perhaps one-half of them must be eaten in the house, the other out-doors. One Peter Whitney wrote from Northborough in 1782, for the Proceedings of the Boston Academy, describing an apple-tree in that town "producing fruit of opposite qualities, part of the same apple being frequently sour and the other sweet;" ”