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Authors: Olwen Woodier

Apple Cookbook

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APPLE
Cookbook

Olwen Woodier

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment
.

C
OVER
D
ESIGN AND
I
LLUSTRATION BY
Rob Johnson
C
OVER
P
HOTOS BY
Giles Prett and Richard Busch
T
EXT
D
ESIGN BY
Erin Lincourt
B
OOK
P
RODUCTION BY
Erin Lincourt and Jennifer Jepson Smith
I
LLUSTRATIONS BY
Elayne Sears
E
DITED BY
Sally Patterson and Dianne M. Cutillo
I
NDEXED BY
Nan Badgett/word•a•bil•i•ty

© 2001, 1984 by Storey Publishing LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other — without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information, please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247.

Note: Many of the food preservation procedures described in this book are subject to U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines. Storey updates information upon publication of each edition and encourages readers to check for the most current standards by writing to Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250-0900; calling 202-720-7441; or by visiting the agency’s Web site at
www.csrees.usda.gov
. You may also contact the Extension Service in your county. In Canada, contact Public Information Request Service, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sir John Carling Building, 930 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C5; 613-759-1000; or visit the agency’s Web site at
www.agr.gc.ca
.

Storey books are available for special premium and promotional uses and for customized editions. For further information, please call 1-800-793-9396.

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

CONTENTS

Apple History

Cooking with Apples

Apple Breakfasts & Breads

Apple Drinks & Snacks

Apple Salads & Sides

Apples Make the Meal

Apple Pies & Cakes

Apple Desserts

Preserving the Apple Harvest

Meet the Apples: Apple Varieties

Appendixes

Index

Acknowledgments

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.

APPLE
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.

Apples on the Move

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.

Apples Settle in America

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.

America’s Number-One Fruit

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.

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