My experiment (long) wasRe: SC - Help with old recipe (OOP)

[cclark at vicon.net]

Peldyn wrote:
> ... I let it simmer until the apples were tender, about 
>10 minutes. I beat the one egg and added a bit of the apple mixture to it 
>mixing well and then threw it into the pot stirring as fast as I could. I let 
>it simmer a little more, picking out the bits of egg that had coagulated. The 
>egg addition didn't seem to have worked out well. The mixture didn't thicken 
>and I detested picking out the egg bits. ...

With the stuff being called jelly, and egg being the only thickener, I'm
going to make a wild guess that the apples should be cooked down some before
the egg is added. Lower the temperature before adding the egg, because once
the apples and sugar have cooked down some, their boiling point will be
higher. Cool it until it's barely simmering (after having boiled) before the
egg goes in. It might also come out more lemony if the zest goes in after
the apples are finished with the first cooking.

Since it seems to be difficult to get it to thicken properly, perhaps this
means that three apples are enough? :-)

One other thing that might prevent curdling is using apples that are not
very tart. The more tart (acidic) they are, the faster the egg proteins will
coagulate upon mixing with them. I had initally assumed that more tartness
might be preferable, but perhaps it wouldn't, because of the egg.

>tried to beat the eggs whites. I beat them for about 20 minutes on the 
>highest speed of my mixer. Try as I might I could only get about half of the 
>egg whites to foam. I ended up with nice stiff peaks on the top and liquid 
>egg on the bottom!!! ...

What might work better than that single beater is a wire whisk. They're not
very expensive, and are easy to use once you get into the rhythm. Use a nice
big bowl with smooth sides (like glass or stainless steel), and hold up the
edge of the bowl that's on the other side from the whisk. One nice thing
about a whisk is that it's easiest to use when you're brushing the sides of
the bowl with every stroke, because the sides of the bowl guide the whisk.
So it naturally digs into the egg whites and mixes them all together,
instead of leaving some out.

BTW, the mixer might last longer with one beater if you use the beater
alternately in both holes. But then there would be less need to hurry up and
replace it with a new mixer and a complete set of beaters. :-)

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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