Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set ForthEarle, Alice Morse
History
Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth
Earle, Alice Morse
Gardens; Landscape gardening
In Pennsylvania, among the people known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, the
Apple frolic was universal. Each neighbor brought his or her own Apple
parer. This people make great use of Apples and cider in their food, and
have many curious modes of cooking them. Dr. Heilman in his paper on
"The Old Cider Mill" tells of their delicacy of "cider time" called
cider soup, made of equal parts of cider and water, boiled and thickened
with sweet cream and flour; when ready to serve, bits of bread or toast
are placed in it. "Mole cider" is made of boiling cider thickened to a
syrup with beaten eggs and milk. But of greatest importance, both for
home consumption and for the market, is the staple known as Apple
butter. This is made from sweet cider boiled down to about one-third its
original quantity. To this is added an equal weight of sliced Apples,
about a third as much of molasses, and various spices, such as cloves,
ginger, mace, cinnamon or even pepper, all boiled together for twelve or
fifteen hours. Often the great kettle is filled with cider in the
morning, and boiled and stirred constantly all day, then the sliced
Apples are added at night, and the monotonous stirring continues till
morning, when the butter can be packed in jars and kegs for winter use.
This Apple butter is not at all like Apple sauce; it has no granulated
appearance, but is smooth and solid like cheese and dark red in color.
Apple butter is stirred by a pole having upon one end a perforated blade
or paddle set at right angles. Sometimes a bar was laid from rim to rim
of the caldron, and worked by a crank that turned a similar paddle. A
collection of ancient utensils used in making Apple butter is shown on
page 211; these are from the collections of the Bucks County Historical
Society. Opposite page 214 is shown an ancient open-air fireplace and an
old couple making Apple butter just as they have done for over half a
century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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