"An Apple a Day"

Eve did not pick a literal apple from the tree of knowledge. It's more likely that it was a pomegranate, considering where on the globe we call the cradle of civilization. The tomato, a New World fruit, was often called "love apple" before it became an accepted food in the gardens and kitchens of Europe. Apples have become something we Americans claim as our own, easy to see as it is so closely tied to our cultural history.  Think of Johnny Appleseed, spreading the easy-growing trees throughout the American frontier, and providing a huge source of food for its hungry people. Apparently Mr. Appleseed (really John Chapman) frugally got his seeds from cider mills after the delicious juices were pressed from the apples.

Apples are a very healthy snack. They contain fiber and natural pectin which helps keep you full. When I make the kids' lunches I often send a 1/2 apple cored (at least one or the other has been missing front teeth for years), and covered with lemon juice to keep down the browning. I often see them come back in their lunch sacks uneaten, and more brown. So I end up eating it myself. When I canvas parents on the playground, I hear answers to the question, "what do you do with half-eaten apples?" My favorite answer was to "make them eat it anyway," and many are composting lunch remnants; both good in the waste reduction department.

I realize when we think of frugal, we need not to waste neither ingredients, nor time and energy. It makes no sense to make a lovely little apple brown betty in a tiny ramekin in order to save the half apple (the cost of revving up a huge oven for 20 minutes outweighs the apple). So I am sharing with you my mother's applesauce recipe, with a few additions from me. This is where you toss in your half-gnawed apples and any others you have lying around. This can cook on a back burner while dinner is being made.

Marcia's Applesauce
6 apples (Mom uses Granny Smith; I use whatever), peeled and sliced to uniform thickness
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3-1/2 cup water
pinch salt
strip of lemon peel

Cook all ingredients in a saucepan on medium-high until bubbling and the sugar has melted. Reduce the heat and let simmer, every so often chopping the apples up with a wooden spoon. Cook 20 minutes or so until they are cooked through and let cool a bit. I like applesauce chunky but, if you like more of a puree, keep cooking on low until they fall apart or use a food mill. They are lovely warm with a little nutmeg or cinnamon on top, for dinner with almost anything: roast chicken, ham, turkey, pork, asparagus, potato. Leftovers are delicious on oatmeal, waffles and pancakes, and in lunches where ironically, they get eaten.

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The apple is an amazingly versatile fruit but some bake better than others. For a list of varieties and suggested uses, check out www.usapple.org (consumers' section). 

Since it is now apple-picking season and people have a tendency to get carried away, I am sharing some other ideas on how to use up your apples. During the fall, apples are at their best prices in the supermarkets, but check the labels to see where your fruit is grown. I bought some organic apples for $1.29 a pound, but they were from New Zealand; their apple season started 6 months ago. More applesauce. Real Simple Magazine (October 2010) recommends refrigeration to keep apples at their best, and using them within 3 weeks. www.realsimple.com/apples The same article recommends "checking for freshness by flicking the skin close to the stem; a hollow sound mean it's past its prime." I'd smack anyone who flicked me to see how youthful I was.

Back to eating: Apple slices are really nice slipped into sandwiches. One of my favorite sandwiches is smoked turkey, brie, mango chutney and apple.Grilled ham and cheese with a good mustard and apple slices is nice too. I like using sliced apples in lieu of crackers, placing peanut butter or a slice of good cheese on top. Chopped apple can go into green salads and really add sweetness and crunch. Don't forget Waldorf salad: chopped apples, nuts, celery, and raisins with a little mayonaise and lemon juice.


As I move to the use of apples involving a greater time commitment and cooking, I want to remind anyone who's reading that the whole point is not to feel exhausted or stressed about this. If you don't have time to make applesauce today, make it tomorrow. Apples keep. So when you're going to be in the kitchen a while, we can move on to the endless uses of apples in savory and sweet applications.

Baked apples can be prepared and go in on a rack with something else you're cooking so it's a no-brainer. Core a few apples, going nearly to the bottom but not through the apple. (Rome and Winesap are good baking apples, but see what looks good to you at the store.) Place in an uncovered ovenproof dish with a little cooking spray. Mix up a teaspoon each per apple of brown sugar, butter, and walnuts with a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg. Stuff this inside each apple. Cook at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Farm Journal's amazing resource Freezing and Canning Cookbook (NY: Doubleday and Co., 1963) recommends peeling the 1/2" of apple skin to prevent shrinkage. For other apple recipes, Farm Journal suggests dropping apple slices in slightly salted water to thwart discoloration. Acidulated water (water and lemon juice) works in the same way. Any leftover baked apples can be warmed up or cut up and used as a snack later.

I bow down to the recipe from American Heritage's Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating and Drinking (Simon & Schuster, 1964) of Fried Apple Rings and Sausage Patties. After frying your sausage, remove all but 1/2" of fat in the pan. Core and cut your apple in whole horizontal slices and lay them in the hot sausage grease to cook, sprinkling them with brown sugar and cinnamon. Turn and cover until apples soften. OMG. You could put that on a waffle with maple syrup and never recover. From the same interesting resource above-mentioned, I found a Pork and Apple Pie from a cookbook entitled La Cuisine Creole that served apples and lean cubed pork in a pastry, slow cooked, then served with fresh horseradish and sour cream. It's porkchops and applesauce pie!  Better Homes & Gardens (October 2010)www.bgh.com suggests pan sauteeing chopping apple and butter with a spoonful of brown sugar until soft, then topping it with crumbled bacon and serving over pancakes or waffles. They would be nice with cubed potato and onion too. Instead of sauteeing the apple mixture, you could probably wrap that up in some piecrust and make your own hot pockets.

An easier stovetop solution to this would be to sautee onions and apples in a Dutch Oven, then sear a pork tenderloin on all sides and drizzle with some balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper, and some thyme. Cover, allowing the meat to cook until at least 155 degrees internally. (Julia Child recommends at least 140, but since the Trichinosis bacteria dies at 138 degrees, I'm cooking until 150-155 degrees.) You can also cook this in the oven after the initial searing.  If you throw in a few sweet potatoes in the oven simultaneously, you could put your feet up for 15 minutes while the dinner makes itself. Make someone else set the table.

A savory vegetarian dish is Yams and Apples: butter a casserole dish and slice sweet potatoes and apples into 1/2" slices. Alternate layering the two in the pan and sprinkle with salt and olive oil. A dash of nutmeg might be nice or white pepper. Cook at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

The Silver Palate cookbook (Workman Publishing, 1979) has an entire chapter,"American as Apple...," devoted to desserts. You will find delicious Medieval Apple Tart, Sour Cream Apple Pie (with an apple cider crust), Apples Sauteed with Calvados, Chunky Apple Cake, and a few I have yet to try. For those who don't feel up to the challenges of pie dough, try a no-crust pie from the pages of Yankee Magazine's Living Well on a Shoestring, (Yankee Publishing, 2000), where apples, flour, sugar and spice are layered in a buttered pie dish and baked at 350 for 30-40 minutes. I am currently trying to convert this to a completely gluten-free dessert, and will amend this recipe shortly.


If all these desserts have you worried, let's think about our food and all the hidden places where we consume sugar and high fructose corn syrup. If you limit the amount of soda, coffee creamers, sweet teas, and juice you drink, replacing them with water, you'll be better hydrated. Also, you will have consumed far less sugar in your day, and saved quite a bit of money in the process. Now you can have dessert, guilt free.

It seems as though there is no end to the variety of crisps, cobblers, and slumps that can be made out of apples. Resourceful cooks have often cobbled together (hence the name) a little fruit and a little sweetened dough to make dessert. A cobbler is fruit on the bottom of the pan, with a sweet crumble top. A slump is biscuit-like dough dropped on top of sweetened apples. Author Louisa May Alcott loved it so that she named her Concord, MA home "apple slump." The apple slump was often served with a buttery nutmeg sauce. A brown betty is layers of buttered breadcrumbs, with apples and spices. Marion Cunningham's amazing cookbooks use apples frequently and simply, but her Seattle Crisp is outstanding.

Seattle Crisp by Marion Cunningham
Fruit:
5-6 medium apples
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
2 tbl. all-purpose white flour


Topping:
1 cup all-purpose white flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 large egg
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)


Peel and core the apples into slices, measure out 6 cups of cut apples. Put the apples and 1/2 c. of sugar in a large bowl and stir until the sugar evenly coats the fruit. The amount of sugar you use depends on how sweet the apples are. Taste an apple slice to see if it seems sweet enough. Add more if needed and stir again. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and mix until it is evenly distributed on the fruit. Put the apples in an ungreased 8-inch square or a round 1 1//2-quart baking dish.

Topping: Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Crack the egg into a small dish, beat with a fork until uniform, and add to the flour-and sugar mixture. Using your hands or a fork, gently mix the egg into the flour-and-sugar mixture until the egg evenly moistens the dry ingredients. Be sure not to press the dough into one solid mass. The topping should be loose and crumbly so that it can be sprinkled over the fruit.

Assembly: Sprinkle the crisp topping evenly over the top of the apples. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring regularly. Spoon the melted butter over the top of the crisp so that it is evenly coated with butter. Put the crisp on the center rack of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. It the top of the crisp is a deep golden brown and the fruit is bubbling, it is done. If not, bake another 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve warm with shipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

taken verbatim, with respect and deference, from
Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham, (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).

I wish I could go into the jellies, jams, and chutneys that are possible, plus ciders, hard ciders, and brandy. Perhaps another time...

If you do indeed become tired of eating apples, there is always the charming notion of turning them into decorative elements. According to a housekeeping manual from 1925, Housekeeping, Cookery and Sewing for Little Girls, you can tie 18" strands of ribbon or raffia around apples and use them as ornaments on your Christmas tree. (Then you can make your applesauce with them later.) I can envision this in the pages of Country Living Magazine. Frankly they look just fine in a bowl on the kitchen table, which tends to encourage people to choose them over a less-healthy alternative.

Just choosing to eat at home is the first way to be frugal, and using what you already have is the key to less waste. Eat well, be happy, and I look forward to hearing from you!