Monday, January 30, 2006
I won't deny it: I'm a simple tool. But I'm a simple tool with 12 pints of apple butter in the fridge, waiting only to be decanted into sterilized jars and sealed. The apples are Pink Ladies, one of the only things about which I disagree with Gina Mallet. She finds them too sweet, soda-pop apples; I find them, sweet, and tart, and floral, and citrussy, with an ovoid shape that amuses me and a dreamy pink skin that catches my eye and doesn't let go. During the winter, when I make apple butter in quantity, I like to make both a batch of dark apple butter, the traditional kind full of cider and brown sugar and dark spices, and light apple butter, with not much more than apples and sugar, maybe a little lemon juice. Having eaten all the Pink Ladies I brought home for pie, I wondered if I could capture their tart brightness in a light apple butter. Dear friends, I think I just may have.
As for the eggs: no, they have nothing to do with apple buttering. I just think they're beautiful. 
I come here for the brilliant writing. I stay for the egg porn.
McLiebschen, Gina is right. Stainless steel works a treat on onion and garlic hands. I have a stainless steel sink, but those little stainless steel rocks sold in kitchenware catalogues work, too—as do spoons. I also have a big bar of something called Chef’s Soap, which is a fragrance-free soap that works nicely.
As far as the roux goes, I do believe you can refrigerate it for at least a week, longer if you use oil instead of butter. I’ve never tried freezing a roux, so I don’t know if freezing it will diminish its efficacy at all. I should probably check my handydandy copy of On Food and Cooking to see if Mr. McGee has anything to say about it.
Joe, the Pink Ladies are—drum roll, please!—local New York State Pink Ladies, which I found at the Union Square greenmarket. I bought mine from Locust Grove Farms (if you’re familiar with the Saturday market, they are the stand right next to the mushroom farm), but I think that all of the apple growers who sell at the market have Pink Ladies to sell. They really are fine, especially in apple butter.
Egg porn? Egg porn? ‘mouse, you make me blush.
D’oh! I was too quick on the “send” button. Those eggs are indeed Araucanas, and they are now commanding premium prices at the market. When I was in Arkansas, I bought Araucana eggs from a pharmacy in Eureka Springs, the owners of which used to source eggs from local people who kept small flocks. Those were as close to perfect eggs as I’ve ever had, but the ones I get at the market are pretty great, too.
Oh, teedz! Chicken and waffles, yes! Myself, I’ve never partaken, but I’ve seen them advertised in the windows of at least three diners/restaurants in Harlem. I don’t know if they’re necessarily considered breakfast food, though. I guess I’m just going to have to hop on the M60 bus and find out and report the results. Alas, I know no interesting stories of chicken and waffles—at least not yet.
Oh, Stephanie! I have burned more batches of apple butter than I can remember, so I definitely feel your pain. In fact, I very nearly burned this batch, but lucky I caught it when only about a little bit of it was *just* starting to caramelize, and I got it out of the pot in time. Unfortunately, there is no easy way around it. The only way to avoid scorching, I’ve discovered, is to just stay close, stir it for an interminably long time,watch out for spattering, and then at the moment that you feel that it might be catching the bottom, pull it off the heat and just keep stirring. If it’s not actually stuck, the time off the heat will loosen it up, and you can pull out anything that might have toasted a little. If it’s actually sticking and burnt, though, you may still be able to save the rest of the batch by decanting it into another pot, washing out your preserving kettle, returning the apples to the kettle and then resuming cooking.
There is also a recipe for baked apple butter in the 1943 Joy of Cooking that looks very intriguing, but I’ve never tried it. You cook the apples and water on the stovetop, run them through the food mill, add your sugar and spices, then bake. I would probably save something like this for dark butter rather than light butter, as I would think that long slow oven baking would darken the butter quite a bit, but I could be wrong.
(Note to Beckie: Yes, I will share.
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I come here for the brilliant writing. I stay for the egg porn.