First, some follow up from Pi Days, part I…
RINGO ROOTS
Not the remaining Beatle..
Guess who has a new album coming out at the end of this month? Postcards from Paradise available 31 March
but Eringo roots, eringo also known as Sea Holly
Sea Holly – eringo – growing on the dunes
Ivan Day at Food History has sooo much more on eringos – he’s cooked it…..
Perhaps you remember this from high school English class.
MISTRESS FORD
Sir John! art thou there, my deer? my male deer?
FALSTAFF
My doe with the black scut! Let the sky rain
potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green
Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes; let
there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here.– William Shakespeare. The Merry Wives Of Windsor Act V Scene V
I hadn’t remembered that it was “Snow Eringoes” – rather apt for this endless winter. Boston has – and winter isn’t actually over, so, SO FAR received 108.6 inches of the fluffy white stuff and Plymouth has had MORE….that’s nine foot of snow shoveling. I will add ‘snow eringoes’ (which Spellcheck would really rather be ‘snow dingoes’) to the general snow vocabulary.
But, on to apple pies to fry
To fry Applepyes.
Take apples and pare them, and chop them very small, beat in a little cinnamon, a little ginger, and some sugar, a little rosewater, take your paste, roul it thin, and make them up as big pasties as you please, to hold a spoonful or a little lesse of your apples, and so stir them with butter not too hastily least they be burned.
- W.I., Gent. A True Gentlewoman’s Delight. Falconwood ed. p. 8.
NOTES:What W.I, Gent is suggesting is that you
- pare some apples and chop them small
- add some powdered (beaten in a mortar with a pestle) cinnamon, ginger and sugar with a little rosewater [did you know that apples and roses are in the same botanical family – they really go very nicely together]
- Your paste is your pastry – a nice buttery based pastry works well here.
- He says make them as big as you please – think coat buttons versus hand pies – raviolis or pierogies..
I’m thinking several of these little filled pasta (pasta means paste….the apple pies are sweet….)would be nice
- A spoonful or less for the filling – wet the edges and pinch them together good – use a fork in the modern kitchen – you don’t want these pretty babies falling apart in the frying pan.
- Put some butter in your frying pan – medium heat – you want to melt the butter and cook the pastry, not burn it.
- A sprinkle of sugar as they come out of the pan would not be amiss…you don’t want to use so much butter that they need to be blotted or drained.
How to make Apple-pyes to Fry.
Take about a dozen pippins, pare them, cut them, and almost cover them with water, and almost a pound of sugar, let them boyl on a gentle fire, close covered, with a stick of cinnamon, minced orange pill, a little dillseed beaten, rosewater, when this is cold and stiff, make it into a little pastie with rich paste.
- William Rabisha. The Whole Body of Cookery, Dissected. p. 201.
NOTES:
- Pippin is a kind of apple (generally it’s a non-specific variety)
- This time you peel and cut and make applesauce out of them, with LOTS of sugar and a piece of cinnamon, orange peel and dillseed, and again the rosewater. Caraway seed is also very nice with apples. You can beat – or grind it to a powder, before you add it..
- A rich paste is one made with lots of butter, and maybe an egg yolk, like a pate sucree click here to see Martha Stewart’s version.
- Again make up into little pies and fry in butter….enjoy!
If you’re interested in more about Pies, there is a National Pie Council…it’s America, there’s a group for everything!
