[Sca-cooks]Mock Apple Pie?

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>>Ritz Mock Apple Pie
>>
>>The National Biscuit Company created Ritz Crackers in 1933 and shortly
>>afterward introduced a recipe that has remain an adored oddity for
>>nearly 70 years: Mock Apple Pie. Its popularity soared during World War
>>II when fresh apples were a luxury few could afford.
>Why were fresh apples more of a luzury during WWII than say before 
>or just after that time? They don't have to be imported like coffee 
>or rubber.

No, but they have to be picked by a largely reduced and redirected 
labor force, stored in warehouses co-opted for military use, and 
shipped on trucks and trains also co-opted for military use. Sugar 
was another relatively inexpensive, everyday item which was rationed 
not because of scarcity, but because the mechanisms used to process 
and ship the stuff were needed for the war effort. American soldiers 
had plenty of sugar;  they used to throw it on dance floors to get 
that scratchy soft-shoe sound. Similarly, apples, if they didn't grow 
well locally, weren't readily available, and if they did grow 
locally, commanded low prices over a glutted, smaller market. And 
there are probably more places in the US where apples either don't 
grow that well, or at least aren't really good places to grow apples, 
than in Europe, which is smaller than the U.S.

>And on a more medieval note, were apples not exported from the apple 
>growing areas in Europe to other parts during the Middle Ages? Or 
>even cider? Wine did get exported from France to England, was 
>English cider not shipped the other direction?

Apples, if you can go by the art and literature, seem to be pretty 
ubiquitous in medieval Europe. As 'Lainie stated, there wouldn't be 
much reason for non-local trade, and then there's the fact that an 
ocean voyage is notorious for screwing up unstable, fermented 
beverages. Not all wines are up to it, and special beers and ales had 
to be developed (things like Brunswick mum in the seventeenth 
century, and India Pale Ale and Russian Imperial Stout in the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, respectively) for shipping, so I 
wouldn't be at all surprised if a lot of cider went bad under 
ship-board conditions, unless it was distilled or something.

Adamantius