Apple Cookbook
Authors: Olwen Woodier
Cookbook
Olwen Woodier
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© 2001, 1984 by Storey Publishing LLC
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Apple Cookbook
was first published as
The Apple Cookbook
in 1984. All of the information in the previous edition was reviewed and updated, and new recipes and information were added.
Printed in the United States by Versa Press
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woodier, Olwen, date.
Apple cookbook / by Olwen Woodier.
p. cm.
Originally published: Pownal, Vt.: Garden Way Pub., c1984.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-58017-389-6 (alk.paper)
1. Cookery (Apples) I. Title.
TX813.A6 W657 2001
641.6′411-dc21
2001020211
Meet the Apples: Apple Varieties
Apple Cookbook
is dedicated to the women who know that cooking for friends and family is not about following recipes but adding an extra pinch of love to nurture soul as well as body: Joyse Woodier, my mother (who, at 92, still bakes almost daily and puts up jams); my daughter, Wendy Busch, and my longtime best friend Ann Kojis Ziff.
There are so many people who made this book possible that I cannot mention all of them, but special thanks go to:
My dear friends, family, colleagues, and orchardists for sharing your recipes and knowledge of apples.
Julia Stewart Daly, Public Relations Director of the U.S. Apple Association in McClean, Virginia, who introduced me to many people in the apple industry and verified apple facts.
Dr. Susan Brown, head pomologist at Cornell University’s Department of Horticultural Sciences at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York, who steered me through the complicated issue of germ plasm and the process of breeding hybrid apples.
Jim Law of Linden Vineyards in Linden, Virginia, for his expert review of sections of the manuscript regarding aspects of growing dwarf varieties and employing Integrated Pesticide Methods.
John and Martha Storey for their faith in revising
The Apple Cookbook
which, when first published in 1984, won a Taste-maker Award, now known as the James Beard Foundation KitchenAid Book Award.
Sally Patterson, my editor at Storey, who guided me through the revision manuscript, and editor Dianne M. Cutillo for her indefatigable spirit in shepherding the book through its final editing.
Designers Erin Lincourt and Jennifer Jepson Smith, copyeditor Arlene Bouras, and others at Storey Publishing who have been instrumental in this new edition.
History
M
AN HAS BEEN MUNCHING
on apples for about 750,000 years, ever since the food gatherers of early Paleolithic times discovered sour, wild crab apples growing in the forests in Kazakhstan, Central Asia. Botanists now believe that this region holds the key to the genetic origins of the wild apples that are the ancestors of the apples we enjoy today.
When U.S. botanists visited Kazakhstan in 1989, they found large stands of ancient apple trees — trees that were 300 years old, 50 feet tall, and bearing large red apples. These trees of
Malus sieversii
, the wild species now believed to be the parent of all domesticated apples, were discovered in 1929 by Russian botanist Nikolai I. Vavilov.
Unfortunately, Vavilov’s work in genetics led to his imprisonment during the Stalin era. He died in prison in 1943. His wonderful discovery was finally announced to the rest of the world by a former student and coworker of Vavilov’s who, at the age of 80, felt the need to pass along the knowledge before it was too late to save the forests of ancient apple trees.
The carbonized remains of apples unearthed in Asia Minor indicate that Neolithic farmers were cultivating wild apples around 8,000 years ago. Later, apples were carried as transportable food by migrating cultures. It is speculated that somewhere along the way
M. sieversii
hybridized with
M. orientalis
and
M. sylvestris
, two wild species producing small and very sour green apples.
THE ORIGIN OF THE APPLE
On discovering the ancient wild apple groves in Central Asia, Nikolai Vavilov rejoiced:
“All around the city one could see a vast expanse of wild apples covering the foothills. One could see with his own eyes that this beautiful site was the origin of the cultivated apple.”
There is recorded evidence from 1300
B.C.
of apple orchards being planted by the Egyptians along the Nile Delta. The Greeks learned grafting techniques around 800
B.C.
, and by 200
B.C
. the Romans were planting apple orchards in Britain.
Colonists arriving in America found only four varieties of wild crab apples. However, the French, Dutch, German, and English all brought seeds from their homelands, and it wasn’t long before apple trees were growing outside their rustic dwellings. The English colonists were the first to bring apple tree scions (shoots) to North America.
The first American orchard was planted in Boston in 1625 by William Blaxton, an English preacher. A few years later, orchards were established in the same area by John Winthrop and John Endicott, governors of the Bay Colony settlement.
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam (now New York), planted the first Dutch apple trees on his farm, The Bouwerie. The first commercial orchard was planted in Flushing, New York, in 1730.
Thousands of varieties of apple trees evolved during the 18th and 19th centuries when colonial farmers decided to plant apple seeds instead of acquiring young tree scions arriving from England and Europe. As the colonists moved from the Atlantic coast westward, they planted apple seeds along the way.
Favorably influenced by moderately cool winters, the colonists’ apple crops flourished in the northern regions. Apples, just like autumn leaves, need the perfect marriage of temperatures — warm, sunny days and cool nights that occur in October — to show off their best qualities.
Cultivated throughout the United States, apples are grown for commercial production in 36 states. The main apple-growing regions are Washington, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, and Virginia. These six states produce most of the country’s annual apple crop, which totaled 254,217 million bushels in 2000. About one-third of the annual U.S. apple crop is processed into juice and canned, frozen, and dehydrated products. The average American eats 48.41 pounds of apples a year.