Stewed Apples

Original

To stew Apples. (Digbie)

Pare them and cut them into slices. Stew them with wine and water as the pears, and season them in like manner with spice. Towards the end sweeten them with sugar, breaking the apples into pap by stirring them. When you are ready to take them off, put in good store of fresh-butter, and incorporate it well with them, by stirring them together. You stew these between two dishes. The quickest apples are the best.

Original Recipe Notes

• This recipe refers back to a similar recipe for pears in the text. That recipe calls for a red or claret wine and seasonings of cinnamon and clove.
• It instructs you to break the “apples into pap by stirring them”. Pap refers to food that is soft and suitable for infants or invalids.
• The “quickest” apples being best is noted at the end of the recipe. This could be taken two ways. Quick growing or having a quick flavor. I choose to interpret it as a quick flavor which is a way for saying a sharp or biting tartness.

My Redaction

Peeled, cored, and sliced tart apples. Stew them with water and wine. Add cinnamon and clove and cook until the apples are soft. Stir sugar into the soft apples, breaking them into smaller pieces and thickening the dish. Remove from the heat and stir in unsalted butter.

Redaction Recipe Notes

• I chose to use a white wine in the recipe this time as I wanted a lighter flavor and color. It changes the taste slightly but not to a huge extent.The flavor of the apple came through more and it was brighter, retaining much of the tartness from the apples. Many of the other dishes had heavy rich flavors. I like the look of the apples without the color from the wine.
• The original recipe referred to for spices stated they should be “some sticks of cinnamon bruised and a few cloves” I only ad ground on hand so rather than add the ground to the apples and change the color or intended flavor I made a “tea” with water and the spices and strained it before adding the spiced liquid to the apples.