Historical Cooking, Week 8

speccoll
Thursday 1 December 2016

This week Sean attempts to make an apple-based dish from our recipe bookthe complete manuscript is available for viewing on our Digital Collections Portal

As temperatures have taken a tumble over the past couple of weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to attempt a winter warmer from our manuscript of recipes this time round.

“Gefüllete äpffel durch die Rüebhächlen” seemed to fit the bill – the recipe is short and sweet in more ways than one, essentially being a kind of baked apple.

The recipe as written in the manuscript
The recipe as written in the manuscript

Gefüllete äpffel durch die Rüebhächlen – Apples filled with [grated apple]

The ingredients are mostly straight forward and easily obtainable:

The ingredients
The ingredients

The first step is:

Hawe die äpffel auf vnd bshneide sie, dan gehächlet, dasein gute blaten voll gibt

Core the apples and cut them up, then [grate them], so that you have a good bowl full

Left: Grating apples Right: A good bowl full
Left: Grating apples Right: A good bowl full

dan bach sie im ancken, bis sie shön gälb warden

then cook them in butter until they are nice and yellow

Cook them in butter until they are nice and yellow
Cook them in butter until they are nice and yellow

dan thue sie in ein blatn, daran ein glas vol wein, zucker, zimet, rosinli, Roswasser, Koch alleβ vndereinandern, dan aufgestelt.

then put them in a bowl, add a glass of wine, sugar, cinnamon, raisins, rosewater, cook everything together, then serve.

It is at this point that the recipe became a little confusing. Isn’t the name of the recipe ‘Apple filled with grated apple?’ Where do the filled apples come in? This wasn’t clear, so reading between the lines (or making things up on the fly, depending on your perspective) the grated apple was used to fill a further apple.

A liberal quantity of wine, raisins and spices (sorry, no rosewater knocking about in the kitchen) were added to the baking dish with the apple mixture, and the whole lot was covered with tin foil, ready to bake.

Ready to bake
Ready to bake

It was baked at a medium heat until the apple was cooked through. The grated apple and wine mixture had cooked together and gave the dish a rich, almost caramelised taste.

Left: Finished dish Right: Not for Instagram
Left: Finished dish Right: Not for Instagram

The final verdict: this is not the most Instagram-worthy meal – but it is a hearty and warm dessert which goes down a treat when the evenings are drawing in and you could use a little comfort food.

Sean Rippington

Digital Archives Officer

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3 thoughts on "Historical Cooking, Week 8"

  • Historical Cooking, Week 8 — Echoes from the Vault – Top Food and Drinks
    Thursday 1 December 2016, 4.34pm

    […] via Historical Cooking, Week 8 — Echoes from the Vault […]

    Reply
  • mandymarie20
    mandymarie20
    Thursday 1 December 2016, 7.58pm

    Sounds delicious to me. The best tasting food isn't Instagram-worthy anyway.

    Reply
  • St Andrews Special Collections
    St Andrews Special Collections
    Monday 5 December 2016, 11.38am

    Thanks - we agree!

    Reply

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