Comfort Me With Apples
Tue., May 6, 05:52 PM
“…Comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love…” (Song of Solomon). Huh? More modern translations are something like, “sustain me with apples, for I am lovesick.”
Oh-h-h. Sustain or nurture may be better linguistically, but the original is – somehow – more comforting.
Apples grow from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, from north to south. Johnny Appleseed distributed seeds all over, but something – crossbreeding or weather or soil – produced so many different strains. Walk into any greengrocer’s shop and you’ll see three or four different kinds of apples; if it’s a large supermarket or a farmers market, you’ll probably see twice as many. They’re available year round and comparatively inexpensive.
I’ve heard that apple trees eventually get “tired,” and it takes twenty years or so for a new orchard to start producing fruit. So it isn’t always profitable to continue a specific kind of apple, and that’s the reason that new varieties come and go. (I haven’t seen a Greening apple in years; that was my mother’s favorite for pies or dumplings.) Apples are specialists in their fields – some are best for eating raw, some for pies, some for sauce. Apples may be juicy or dry, hard or soft, sweet or tart. And some change their characteristics after being cooked.
What I’ve been enjoying about apples right now is experimenting. Some varieties are so sweet you want to sprinkle them with lemon juice. Granny Smiths are tart and hard; I do like them “out of hand.” I’ve always stuck to the basic varieties when I’m cooking for other people, but now most of the time I’m cooking only for myself. If a single apple doesn’t turn out quite right, it’s no big deal.
I make great apple pies. People who think they don’t like pies like my apple pies. Sister, who “doesn’t eat pie,” will happily partake of my Thanksgiving pie. She thinks I’m using Mackintoshes, which make good applesauce but lousy pies. Romes and Cortlands are somewhat better, but Golden Delicious apples hold their shape best. It is somewhat disconcerting to pile a pan high with apple slices, bake it, and cut into…air. On the other hand, that top crust will be perfect!
Most pie recipes recommend sprinkling the fruit with flour or cornstarch to absorb the juices, which may be very watery when hot. A good way to produce glue. Instead of flour, I’ve been adding raisins, which simply absorb whatever liquid is there. Much better texture.
Applesauce has been a mainstay in our family forever, and I don’t mean that pallid stuff from a jar. (Maybe what we make is apple butter? Maybe not.) My mother would fill a heavy pot with apple chunks, add a tablespoon or so of water (to protect them at the beginning), cover and cook them over fairly high heat. Soon they would start giving off their own juices. When the chunks became soft, she’d mash them with a potato masher and add some cinnamon and a bit of sugar.
My version of this recipe – of course – is to use the microwave. I use a flat-bottomed glass bowl. I have discovered that if you fill it to the top, the juice will boil over, but I usually fill it because it only holds about three apples. (I cut them in fourths or sixths because it’s easier to peel and core them that way). I microwave on high, four minutes at a time, letting the apples rest and stirring them before continuing. When those big chunks are soft, I add a half-teaspoon of cinnamon and get the potato masher. (Cinnamon not only masks the darkening of some types of apple, but it also shows me the chunks I missed.) I used Red Delicious last time; they were so much sweeter than raw ones I didn’t add any sugar at all. They were also quite juicy, so I added a handful of dried berries.
Several years ago, when Husband was recovering from hip surgery, he was in a convalescent facility that insisted on giving him daily Metamucil, which he hates. So each day I sauced one apple for him. I put it on a flat plate with a bowl over it as a cover and brought him a container of fresh applesauce every day. He likes applesauce very much but never acknowledged the favor. The nurses, on the other hand, were grateful that they didn’t have to force him to drink the glop. And his tummy was fine.
A few years ago, some group was conducting a poll about which tree was the most important in American history. I think the final winner was the oak, which is not a bad choice, but I couldn’t believe the apple tree wasn’t even nominated. What other plant provides both food and wood in such diverse varieties – not to mention fragrant blossoms? (I wrote it in.)
An apple a day… you’ve heard that, I’m sure. Do you believe it? I recently began making a supper of an apple and some popcorn, just because they’ll fill me up without raising my blood sugar too much. And then I read (Narsai David. "Saucy essentials," The San Francisco Examiner - April 9, 2003) that the pectin and fiber in apples – especially in the peels – help control both blood sugar and cholesterol. Wow-ee!
