Apple Pie – 1831 Vintage
Posted by Warren
Makes one 9-inch pie, double crust, fruit filling
The Cook Not Mad, Knowlton & Rice, 1831
A very simple double crust apple pie with an old fashioned twist. This pie is made with just a few ingredients.
Apple Pie Recipe
The Cook Not Mad, Knowlton & Rice, 1831
Stew and strain the apples, to every three pints grate the peel of a fresh lemon, add rose water and suger to your taste, and bake in paste – pie crust.
A Cookbook with vintage pie recipes
This is a most interesting little book. Printed first in 1830 in Watertown, New York, it was reprinted there in 1831 (this copy) and again in 1841. Of more importance is that within one year of its first appearance in New York, it was published across the border and became Canada’s first printed cookbook.
The only difference between the American edition and the Canadian is a single word – the substitution of the word "Canadian" for the word "American" in the titles.
This is intriguing since the book stresses the importance of American cooking and denigrates foreign influences such as English, French and Italian.
Apple Pie Recipe
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—Ingredients—
Filling
3 pounds apples
2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
3/4 cup white sugar
sufficient quantity rose water
pinch of salt
Directions
1. Prepare the pastry: Roll the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust. Chill the pastry.
2. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
3. Prepare the filling: Add your lemon zest and lime juice to the bowl. Peel, halve and core the apples. Be sure to remove seeds. Stew apples.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugars and rose water. Add them to the apples just before you want to bake the pie, mix gently. Adjust sugar to taste as needed.
5. Scrape the filling into the bottom crust, dot with butter and cover it with the second crust. Trim and crimp the crust; chill the pie for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator. Cut vent slits in the top crust. It is your option to sprinkle it with sugar or brush the top with egg wash.
6. Bake the pie on a baking sheet for 10 minutes at 400° F or until the crust looks dry, blistered, and blonde. Turner the oven down to 375°F, and bake for at least 45 minutes more or until the crust is golden brown, and visible juices are thickened and bubble slowly through the slits in the top crust. Check if the bottom crust has darkened. If not bake a little more and cover the top crust, so it does not burn.
7. Cool the pie completely before cutting at least a few hours or warm in an hour. Store the pie uncovered in a cool place up to three days.
Apple Pie Success
Try using a bamboo skewer to check the apples instead of a toothpick. Keep a supply on hand. When you think the pie is done, stick the skewer down into one of the steam vents. As the skewer enters the apples, there should be almost no resistance. If there is probably it needs 10 minutes more of baking.
