Retro Recipes...Nine Ideas for Apples

I love vintage magazines for many reasons. The woman's magazines, especially, had wonderful, well written stories and were packed full of projects and recipes. But mostly I love them because they give a glimpse of true history...what was popular at the time.

Soon I will be decorating a room in our new building that will serve as both a workshop for me and, in season, a space to sort, store, and sell our apple harvest.

 

I am calling this room my Happy 50's Kitchen. Today I was bumming around in a local second hand shop (Galion Flea Market in Uptowne Galion, Ohio), looking for magazines to help me get an idea of what the interior of 50's kitchens truly looked like.

 

I found an October, 1953 edition of Woman's Day. The first page I opened was this page of ideas for apple salads. How appropriate is that? :)

 

Some things never go out of style. They are called "Classics" for a reason, and these recipes sound as yummy today as they did when Marjorie Henderson, of Woman's Day kitchen, designed them 62 years ago.

 

See if you agree...

 

1. Apple Luncheon Salad

Arrange  wedges of unpeeled red apple on greens. Top with ham, chicken, tuna-fish, or shrimp salad.

     *note: you could also top with cottage cheese

 

2. Apple, Carrot and Raisin Salad

Combine bite-size chunks of unpeeled red apple with shredded carrot and seeded raisins. Serve with mayonnaise.

 

3. Apple Glace` with Honey Cream Cheese

Simmer 4 peeled, cored apples in syrup made by boiling 2 cups pineapple juice, 1/2 cup sugar, and a little red coloring, until apples are tender and red, turning often. Drain; chill. Put on greens. Stuff with cream cheese softened with honey. Top with walnut halves.

       *note: keep the apples whole, like for a baked apple. I would not use red food coloring.

 

4. Danish Salad

Combine 1/2 cup each finely diced apples, cooked potatoes, beets, cooked veal, and pickled herring. Add small, diced dill pickle, a little mince onion, and vinegar. Season to taste. Moisten with heavy cream. Mix lightly. Pack into 4 custard cups; chill well. Un-mold; garnish with sliced hard-cooked eggs.

    *note: this recipe is more involved, but the combination of foods is intriguing to me. I have no idea what pickled herring tastes like because I am allergic to fish. But now I know why this is called "Danish Salad" :)

 

5.Apple-and-Orange Salad

Alternate slices of unpeeled red apple and orange on water cress. Serve with sweetened French dressing.

     *note: I think putting the fruit slices on any type of greens would work. For instance, a modern twist might be to put them on a bed of spinach, which is so popular right now.

 

6. Waldorf Salad

Combine chunks of peeled tart apple, diced celery, chopped walnuts, and cooked salad dressing. Garnish with cranberry sauce. 

     *note: what is cooked salad dressing? I know, right? Well, no fear...a quick search on Cooks.Com led to a slew of recipes. For me, well, I'd probably use mayonnaise >grinz< 

 

7. Two-Cheese Apple-Ring Salad

Core, slice large red apple. Put cottage cheese between and on top of two apple slices. Top with crumbled blue cheese.

     *note: again, because of allergy, I'd omit blue cheese and use any kind of crumbled cheese that I like...such as farmers.

 

8. Curried Apple, Onion, and Pepper Salad

Combine strips of apple with thin onion rings, crisp slivers of red and green peppers. Serve with mayonnaise seasoned with curry powder.

    *note: apples and onions? In Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, Farmer Boy, she wrote that one of Almanzo's favorite dish was fried apples and onions. I gave it a try and can honestly say that I am a fan! So I imagine that this combo is tasty in Marjorie's recipe. I would use a sweet onion, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla

 

9. Jellied Cinnamon-Apple Salad

Dissolve 1/3 cup red cinnamon candies in 2 cups boiling water. Heat, and pour over 1 package red, fruit-flavored gelatin dessert. Stir until dissolved. Chill until partially thickened. Fold in 3/4 cup each chopped celery and apple, dash salt, and 1/3 cup chopped nuts. Pour into molds; chill until firm. Unmold on greens.

      *note: I doubt if I would bother to use a mold, I think it would be just fine chilled in a regular bowl and scooped out onto the greens when ready to serve.

 

So there you are, nine retro recipes for apples. As our varieties ripen I will give each one of these a try, and (hopefully) make blog post updates to give you my opinions. :)

 

Marcheta *all in a Woman's Day

 

 

Little Green Apples

If it's July, it's Summer Apple Pickin' Time.

The first apples of the season are Yellow Transparent and the child it had when it crossed with Montgomery. They named their baby "Lodi". Both are thin-skinned and extremely tart. And they don't last long.

So...what good are they?

SAUCE!

And yesterday I baked an apple/raisin/nut quick bread with Lodi apples for the first time to check out how the apples would hold up (they did) and it is fantastic! More about that later.

First: to make sauce. For this blog post I used one quart of apples. It took 20 minutes from start to finish and yielded a pint of sauce.

Begin by rinsing the apples under running water.

Next, quarter and core the apples. No need to peel them as the skins are very thin and will separate from the flesh when cooked. Plus, there's a lot of good nutrition at skin level. :)

 

Cook with about 1/4 cup of water over low heat. As the apples begin to cook down you can turn up the heat to speed up the process. Stir often to make sure the apples are not sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the sauce gets too thick before the apples are cooked down, add another splash of water. The cooking time takes about 12 minutes.

 

The apples nearly sauce themselves when cooked. When done, run the apples in a food mill or sieve, like this one, to remove the skins and make a nice, smooth sauce.

 

 

That's all there is to it! I added 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. Honey is also an excellent sweetener. For Lodi and Transparent, I do not recommend using maple syrup, which is really tasty on other varieties of applesauce such as yellow delicious.

Now for that apple bread!

Lodi Apple Bread

If you don’t have time to make Lodi applesauce you can substitute commercially prepared apple sauce.

Directions

Dry mix:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. apple pie spice or a combo of cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg and allspice
2 cups white sugar

Wet mix
1/2 cup Lodi applesauce
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups peeled, cored, diced Lodi apples
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 cup golden or regular raisins
1/3 cup chopped dates

Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together applesauce, oil and eggs.

Add remaining ingredients to wet mix. Add wet mix to dry, stirring just until combined. The batter will be very dry. Place in 2 small bread pans that have been well greased and floured.

Bake in 350 degree oven for about an hour. Allow to cool in pans for at least 1/2 hour. Remove from pans very carefully.

Marcheta *the "Apple Lady" strikes again!