Now, it’s the time of year to change into our autumn clothes, colors, and choose from menus of hearty foods and warming drinks. We have taken a particular shine to apple lore and all the amazing things made from apples.
It’s Appletime
Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer
Published: October, 2005
Now, it’s the time of year to change into our autumn clothes, colors, and choose from menus of hearty foods and warming drinks. We have taken a particular shine to apple lore and all the amazing things made from apples.
Dianne took a flying trip through her home food and wine library on the hunt for apple-related goods. Such wonderful discoveries about a fruit so ingrained in our lives that we pretty much take it for granted.
Culture
It seems that the world has never been without apples. It started with Adam and Eve, and if we believe the Garden of Eden story, then apple lore begins there and courses through history, with the European Pilgrims bringing apple seeds for planting the first orchards in our country.
The apple has affected culture in a variety of ways, from the art of René Magritte, the science of Sir Isaac Newton, to company names, song titles, book titles and expressions: "The apple of your eye," "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," "One rotten apple spoils the barrel," "The Big Apple," Apple computers and San Francisco’s Green Apple Book Store. And how about this one: "Shoofly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy, makes your eyes light up, and your tummy say howdy."
The world of botanical drawing and fine art museums are rich with painting and illustrations incorporating images and symbolism of apples, apple blossoms, apple trees, apple orchards.
Apple green is a popular color in fashion, in home furnishings, in the auto industry. We visited a town in Pennsylvania named Ernest, where local folk said all the people in the town bought green cars; so, their local expression was "an Ernest green car."
Gastronomy
Apples can be eaten raw, (a thin slice of apple is terrific in a peanut butter sandwich), made into raw salads, cooked in a great variety of ways, combined with vegetables, all kinds of meats and sauces. There are pies, cakes, fritters, and what would Halloween be without bobbing for apples?
Then there are the beverages of juice, cider, hard cider, Apple Jack, and Calvados from France. In the late 1500’s, a Spanish armada ship named El Salvador crashed off the coast of Normandy, France. The locals celebrated the easy pickings from the ship with distilled apple brandy. Their drink-laden tongues morphed El Salvador into Calvados, by which the area and the beverage is known today.
Normandy is also famous for its butter and cream. Dishes called à la Normande are usually made with lavish creamy sauces, with or without a dash of Calvados. In any event, Calvados was found to have great digestive properties, so a shot between courses was common.
History
And let us go back for a minute to those hardy pilgrims because it was not for food that the orchards were planted. It was for juice and hard cider, which was distilled and made into a beverage called Applejack by Scotsman, William Laird, in 1698. Pilgrims were suspicious of water and used to drinking alcoholic beverages at all times of the day. And according to Laird’s Applejack Cookbook, which is a mini history of those early days, the other traditional sources used to make alcohol, grains, etc., did not thrive in the cold New England weather, so the best thing on hand, and the easiest to use, was apples.
The Laird tradition of fine Applejack and premium apple brandy continues today. We have had the cookbook about 10 years, and as noted on their website (www.lairdandcompany.com), the price is still $9.95. The book is full of historical tidbits and truly fine recipes. If we started in on the food recipes, we could easily take up the whole of Bay Crossings. So, for the moment, here are a few choice drink recipes. Notice you decide what the proportions are.
HOT APPLE: Laird’s Applejack, Hot Apple Cider, lemon peel and cinnamon stick
HOT CIDER FLOAT: Laird’s Applejack, Hot Apple Cider, vanilla ice cream, powdered cinnamon
Lastly, from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Spring 2005, comes an article about crabapples, suggesting that the bitter taste, hence called "crabbed," comes from Henry David Thoreau’s essay, "Wild Apples" — "sour enough to set a squirrel’s teeth on edge and make a jay scream."
Dianne Boate is a freelance writer, photographer, hat designer. Her work can be seen at www.danielakart.com; Robert Meyer is a consultant to the wine and spirits industry. At a chateau where they were guests many times in the countryside of France, a very large bottle of Calvados would be trotted out at the end of all the fine meals there. "Digestive!" the host would cry out. Robert knew the secret place where it was hidden, and early in the morning, would have a tipple. "Digestive," he would whisper to Dianne.
