Apple Pie
The Boston Cooking School Cook Book —
1940 by Fannie Merritt Farmer
According to my 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook, apple pie was served daily in New England in 1630 as the young orchards started producing. Recipes tend to be rather similar with variations being made with either brown or white sugar and with respect to spices that most often include cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove singly or in some combination. A fat like butter, a bit of salt, and occasionally lemon juice and grated rind are used.
The following is found in the Boston Cooking School cook book with my notes shown below the recipe itself.
6 - 8 sour apples 3/4 c. white or brown sugar 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg or cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt 1 tbsp butter 2 tsp lemon juice Few gratings lemon rind |
Line pie plate with pastry. Pare, core, and cut applies in eighths, put row rown the plate 1/2 inch from edge, and work towards center until plate is covered; then pile on remainder. Mix sugar, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice, and grated rind, and sprinkle over apples. Dot over with butter. Wet edges of undercrust, cover with upper crust and press edges together. Bake. Set pie in bottom of hot oven (450º F.) for 10 minutes. Then move to middle shelf, reduce heat to moderate (350º F.), and bake 40 to 60 minutes. If upper crust browns too quickly, cover with paper. |
Notes: This was a bright tasting pie, but the lemon was very prominent and almost overtook the apple taste. Leave the lemon out if you aren't a big fan.
I used fresh-picked Honeycrisp apples from our apple tree and white sugar. I mixed a combination of freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon bark. To prevent browning of the fruit, I tossed the fruit with the juice of half a lemon, and added about 2 tbsp of flour to compensate for the extra moisture.
I usually bake my pies in a hot oven (400º F.) for 45 minutes with an aluminum foil to cover the whole pie. I remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of baking time to get a nice color. We are very picky about pie color in our house. The pie has to be brown enough, but can't be burnt. Everyone here has VERY strong opinions about that.
When I get to the color and bubbling I'm looking for, then I take the pie out to cool on a rack on the counter.
As for pie plates, Pyrex is a great standby, however, I am partial to my old Ovenserve pie plates. They were produced by the Homer Laughlin Company (the same folks that produced Fiesta). I get a uniformly baked crust on the bottom ... which is again very important in the craft of pie making. IMNSHO!
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