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apple-butter-msg - 4/4/19

Period apple butter. Making it.

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Is apple butter period or anything like it?

From the fb "SCA Cooks" group:

Devo Sandberg Kessin

11/6/18 at 10:38 PM

Good morning! I was wondering if apple butter is period?

Tanayle Haga

Considering how much sugar is typically used making apple butter, it would seem very unlikely to be a period thing in the form we're used to.

Suzanne Egan

apple butter at is basic is apples slow cooked with very little sugar added, the slow condensing cooking doesn't need it, you do need to be careful about the spices and amounts you add though.

Jörgen Fägerquist

From what I've seen at the yearly Berkeley Springs Apple Butter Festival, no sugar is used. Bushels of apples are peeled, cored, and diced. Then cooked for hours, I mean HOURS, to remove the water and concentrate it.

Kelly West

Making apple butter was an all-day affair for me growing up. The fire got started under the giant copper pot outside, and we started peeling and coring bushels upon bushels early in the morning, and they cooked all day in butter and spices with the biggest stirring rod I've ever seen. I don't remember seeing sugar on the table, but I suppose that would also depend on the apples and your preference.

Susan Tucker-Judd

I have never added a sweetener to mine. I use different kinds of apples to make it sweeter.

Stefan Li Rous

That's a lot of apples. Does turning them into apple butter help preserve them?

Suzanne Egan

yes it is, look for apple moyse, apple muse is a similar dish, I found a heap of dishes last year when I went looking.

http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec70.htm

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

I think of apply muse/ moyse/moyle as being more like apple sauce. It is eaten as it is, whereas apple butter is not generally eaten out of a bowl with a spoon, but rather spread in relatively small amounts on bread or pancakes or somesuch.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

Here are five recipes from two 15th c. English cookbooks

Harleian Ms. 279 (ca. 1430)

-- Lxxix. Apple Muse. Take Appelys an sethe hem, and Serge hem thorwe a Sefe in-to a potte; thanne take Almaunde Mylke & Hony, an caste ther-to, an gratid Brede, Safroun, Saunderys, & Salt a lytil, & caste all in the potte & lete hem sethe; & loke that thou stere it wyl, & serue it forth.

-- Cxxxiiij. Apple Moyle. Nym Rys, an bray hem wyl, & temper hem with Almaunde mylke, & boyle it & take Applys, & pare hem, an small screde hem in mossellys; throw on sugre y-now, & coloure it with safroun, & caste ther-to gode pouder, & serue f[orth].

-- Cxxxv. Applade Ryalle. Take Applys, & sethe hem tylle they ben tendyr, & than let hem kele; then draw hem throw a straynour; & on flesshe day caste ther-to gode fatte brothe of freysshe beef, an whyte grece, & Sugre, & Safroun, & gode pouder; & in a Fysshe day, take Almaunde mylke, & oyle of Olyff, & draw ther-vppe with-al a gode pouder, & serue forth. An for nede, draw it vppe with Wyne, & a lytil hony put ther-to for to make it than dowcet; and serue it forth.

Laud Ms. 553 (Bodleian Library)

-- Pommesmoille. Nym rys & bray hem in a morter, tempre hem vp with almande milke, boille hem: nym appelis & kerue hem as small as douste, cast hem yn after ye boillyng, & sugur: colour hit with safron, cast therto goud poudre, & 3if hit forth.

-- Apply moys. Nym appeles, seth hem, let hem kele, frete hem throwe an her syue; cast it on a pot / & on a fless day cast thereto goud fat broth of bef, & white grese sugur & safron, & on fissh days almand mylke, & oille de oliue, & sugur, & safron: boille hit, messe hit, cast aboue good poudre, & 3if it forth.

Suzanne Egan

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya I eat apple butter off the spoon, often with yoghurt, I rarely use it on bread, pancakes yes but rarely bread. I also will use it to bake with too, I have a really yummy apple spice bread that I bake and often use apple butter instead of apple sauce. As much as they are different consistencies I use them interchangeably depending on what I have preserved in the pantry, upshot of living in the apple isle!

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

I do the same, but that is not the intent of apple butter nor is it the way most people eat it. I'm not a bread lover and rarely eat toast. So when i have any jam, it's something i eat with a spoon (i'm especially fond of rose hip jam). "Spoon fruit" is not unknown in a number of cultures, but Anglo-American cultures do not typically eat fruit preserves that way.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

BTW, since the late Middle English of the recipes can be a bit opaque for some, i've "translated" them into modern English.

5 recipes in "Two Fifteenth Century English Cookbooks" by Austin

Note that Muse, Moyle, Moille, and Moys all basically mean "mush"

Harleian Ms. 279 (ca. 1430)

Lxxix. Apple Muse. Take apples and boil them, and strain them through a sieve into a pot. Then take almond milk & honey, and caste thereto [i.e., into the pot], and grated bread, saffron, [red] saunders, & salt a little, & cast all in the pot & let them boil; & watch that you stir it well, & serve it forth.

Cxxxiiij. Apple Moyle. Take rice, and bray it well, & temper it with almond milk, & boil it & take apples, & pare them, and small chop them in morsels; throw on sugar enough, & color it with saffron, & cast thereto good powder, & serve forth.

Cxxxv. Apples Royalle. Take apples, & boil them until they are tender, & then let them cool; then draw them through a strainer. And on flesh days cast thereto good fat broth of fresh beef, and white grease, & sugar, & saffron, & good powder; & in a Fish day, take Almond milk, & oil of olive, & draw there-up withal a good powder, & serve forth. And if you need, draw it up with wine, & a little honey put thereto to make it sweet; and serve it forth.

Laud Ms. 553 (Bodleian Library)

Pommesmoille [Apple Moille]. Take rice & bray it in a mortar, temper it up with almond milk, boil it. Take apples & carve them as small as dust, cast them in after the boiling, & sugar: color it with saffron, cast thereto good powder, & give it forth.

Apply moys. Take apples, boil them, let them cool, press them through a hair sieve; cast it in a pot. And on a flesh day cast thereto good fat broth of beef, & white grease, sugar, & saffron; & on fish days almond milk, & oil of olive, & sugar, & saffron. Boil it, dish it up, cast on it good powder, & give it forth.

Ea Fleming

I'll be a curmudgeon and say that, technically, it isn't period. Why? Because of the consistency and the spicing, plus the common ingredients. Apple butter uses cinnamon and cloves (and possibly vanilla). The consistency of it is a puree. Apple moyle/muse would have had the consistency of apple sauce. Bread (or rice flour) and almond milk, as well as meat or fish broth, were included in period recipes. Common spices included saffron, saunders, powder fort, and/or salt. Would modern apple butter taste like this?

This isn’t to say that the period apple dish wasn’t a progenitor of modern apple butter, but that “apple butter”, per se, did not exist in period.

Tiffany Ballard

I made a "filling" from Ein Buch von guter spise that was 50/50 pear (apple or quince) and honey. It was very similar to apple butter.

To Ea's point it was not spiced like modern apple butter, but the texture and use were similar.

Ea Fleming

You can find a great number of apple moyle recipes (and other spellings) at http://medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?twofi:134:APL

Michelle Enzinas

The problem with apple butter is that it lacks sugar or wine for preservation. An uncut apple will last the winter in the right conditions but the resource heavy apple butter (simmering for a very long time) would need to be stored or mould very fast. there are thick apple pie fillings but as a condiment I wouldn't think so. Worth digging further though.

Johnna Holloway

Apple Butter if you go back to the 1839 Lettice Bryan recipe starts out with apple cider which is boiled down and into which the peeled and quartered apple pieces are tossed and cooked. A rather different sort of item than our medieval moyles.

David Friedman

David Friedman I agree with Ea. Looking at the Apple Muse from _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_ , it doesn't sound very much like the descriptions here of apple butter. There is no suggestion of a very long boiling, and ingredients include honey, almond milk, and bread crumbs.

So unless someone comes up with something closer, the answer is that apple butter is not known to be period.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

Not all the recipes include bread. Of the five i posted (in their original form) only one includes bread.

Two include fatty beef broth and "white grease" on regular days, *not* what we usually include in apple butter; and almond milk and olive oil on fish/fast days.

As for seasonings:

- All 5 include saffron.

- One includes red sauders (the one with bread crumbs).

- Three include "good powder", which i think would be the spice blend poudre fine/ fine spice powder, which includes not only what we consider "sweet" spices (cinnamon, cloves) but can also include what we might consider "hot" spices, such as ground peppercorns and grains of paradise.

Apple butter is usually cooked down until it is brown - the brown is not just from the cinnamon that is included but also the caramelization of the sugars in the apples. When i made the medieval version for a feast, it was not brown, but nicely seasoned (in my opinion)