Victoria University College

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 15

Victoria University College

SARAH ANNE RHODES FELLOWSHIP IN HOME SCIENCE.

DO YOU KNOW—APPLE PIE WAS A SIXTEENTH CENTURY DELICACY?

Sixteenth century English cookbooks abound in fascinating recipes for making “Pyes of greene apples," and tarts of apples flavoured with rosewater, orange peel, spices and other ingredients. On down through the centuries, apple pies have continued to feature in the culinary books of the day. They have appeared on the tables of peasants and kings and have figured extensively in nursery rhymes dear to the heart of every child. Poets have waxed sentimental on the subject of apple pies and learned writers have discoursed at length on their popularity in Euglish households. Apple pies, indeed. seem to have held undisputed supremacy in the gastronomic preferences of the human race from the time of their conception down to the present day.

One of the most unusual recipes for this dainty of dainties, found in an early work entitled “The Good Housewives Handmaid" tells us how to make an apple and orange pie. “For a tarte of apples and orange pilles (peels or rinds), take your oranges and lay them in water a day and a night, then seeth them in faire water and honey and let seeth till they be softe; then let them soak in the sirrop a day and a night; then take forth and cut them small and then make your tart and season your apples with sugar, synamon and ginger and put in a piece of butter and lay . a course of apples, a course of oranges, and so, course by course, and season your oranges as you seasoned your apples with somewhat more sugar; then lay on the lid and put it in the oven and when it is almost baked, take rosewater and sugar and boyle them together till it be somewhat thick, then take out the tart and take a feather and spread the rosewater and sugar on tho lid and let it not burn."

Tho cookery book of “Hannah Glasse," famed throughout the 18th century as tho leading authority on the culinary art, gives directions for making an apple pie which sounds slightly more familiar.

“Make a good puff paste crust," says the well-known writer, “lay some round the sides of the dish, pare and take out the cores, lay a row of apples thick, throw in half the sugar you design for your pie, mince a little lemon peel fine, throw over, and squeeze a little lemon over them, then a few cloves, here and there one, then the rest of your apples, and the rest of your sugar. You must sweeten to your palate, and squeeze a little more lemon. Boil the peeling of the apples and the cores in some fair water, with a blade of mace, till it is very good; strain it, and boil the syrup with a little sugar till there is but very little and good, pour it into your pie, put on your upper crust and bake it. You may have a little quince or marmalade, if you please." Eighteenth century America, like eighteenth century England, was addicted to the eating of home-made apple pies. An interesting extract from a letter written by a father on July 21, 1792, to his children in New England, pleads with them to como home and live with their parents in Ohio. The old father, in dwelling on the advantages of such a move, craftily mentions the various fruits on the place and how their “mamme" is accustomed to make them into pies. “I suppose you think that wo have no varieties here," writes the father, “but I can tell you that your mamme made a peach pie the fourth of July, which was kept a high day with us, and the fourteenth day she made two apple pies. These pies were made of our own fruit."

Apple pies long have been connected with tho good things of life—with home and family and plentiful harvests —to a poet of 1616, they were associated with his lady love. Perhaps she had once made him an apple pie with her own fair hands—who knows? At all events, this enthusiastic writer burst out with a pretty compliment which has been preserved throughout the years: “Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes!"

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