apple, Chestnut, and Cornbread dressing

8 tablespoons

(1 stick) butter

2 medium onions,

chopped (about 2 cups)

2 celery stalks, thinly

sliced (about 1 cup)

1 sweet apple, cored

and cut into 1/2-inch

dice (about 1 cup)

1 tart apple, cored

and cut into 1/2-inch

dice (about 1 cup)

2 tablespoons chopped

fresh thyme

1 tablespoon chopped

fresh sage

3 tablespoons

fnely chopped

flat-leaf parsley

1 cup roasted or

steamed chestnuts,

crumbled

4 cups 1-inch cubes

italian or French bread

4 cups crumbled

cornbread (page 391)

2 large eggs

1 1/2 to 2 cups turkey or chicken

stock, warmed

1 teaspoon kosher

salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground black

pepper, or to taste 

            This is my house dressing, a certainty at Thanksgiving and a good idea to serve at other times with roasted chicken, game birds, or pork. I call this dressing because I bake it in a dish instead of inside a bird or butterflied chop, which would make it stufng. If someone in your family expects stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving, then lightly pack some into the bird and bake the rest in a dish, an approach that satisfes the innies and the outies. My advice is that if there is a specifc food or practice that defnes a holiday for a loved one, even if it’s some cockamamy thing from that side of the family, just put it on the table and keep your opinions to yourself. Chestnuts are native to North America and once flourished in our forests and served as a major source of food for Native Americans and frontiersmen. A devastating blight that began in 1904 nearly wiped out the native trees, so most
chestnuts we have now come from European or Asian rootstock. It’s fne to use jarred or packaged chestnuts that are already cooked and peeled, but if you want to roast your own.

Makes 12 Servings

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter a 9 × 13-inch baking dish.

2 Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and celery and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Stir in the apples and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the thyme, sage, parsley, and chestnuts and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes. Transfer into a large bowl. Stir in the bread and cornbread.

3 Whisk the egs in a small bowl until the whites and yolks are blended, then stir into the bread mixture.

4 Stir in enough warm stock to make the dressing quite moist but not so much that there is standing liquid in the bottom of the bowl. Season with the salt and pepper.

5 Spoon the stufng into the prepared baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the stufng is hot and lightly browned on top, about 25 minutes longer. Serve warm. make-ahead note: You can prepare the stufng up through Step 4 up to 1 day ahead. Cover with foil and refrigerate. Bake just before serving.
 

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Skillet apples

6 small frm apples

3 tablespoons bacon

drippings or butter

2 to 6 tablespoons sugar 

         This is what many southerners call fried apples, but they are not deep-fried (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Traditional southern recipes often used the word “fried” to mean anything cooked in a skillet in a bit, or a lot, of fat. Fried apples are usually breakfast food, so they are often cooked in the drippings du jour left in the skillet from frying the breakfast meat, such as bacon, country ham, or sausage. They are also delicious in butter. Most people add a little sugar. My grandmother’s aunt seasoned her fried apples with sugar, salt, and a pinch of hot pepper. (She also swabbed the inside of her lower lip with a birch twig brush dipped in snuff and cursed like a sailor back when few folks uttered so much as an expletive.) Small, frm apples work best. I’m partial to puckery-sour green apples, but I’m also happy with old-fashioned sweet yellow transparents. Avoid apples that are mealy or ruined by commercial success. Cook them slowly to coax out their natural juices.

Makes 4 to 6 Servings

1 Peel the apples only if they are blemished. Cut the apples into quarters, remove the cores, and cut each wedge into 3 or 4 slices.

2 Heat the fat in a large, heavy skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium heat. Add the apples and stir to coat. Cover the skillet and cook, stirring once or twice, until the apples begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Taste a slice and add sugar as needed. Stir gently to coat the apples and continue cooking until the apples are tender and the juices thicken into syrup, 5 to 8 minutes more. The outsides of the apples should be warm and sticky, but the insides should remain a little frm. Serve warm.

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Apple Cider Vinaigrette

2 cups unfltered

apple cider

1/4 cup unfltered

organic cider vinegar

6 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground

black pepper 

 1 Simmer the apple cider in a saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 3/4 cup. Pour into a glass jar with a tight-ftting lid. Add the vinegar, oil, honey, salt, and pepper and shake vigorously to combine.

2 Use soon or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week. Return to room temperature, shake vigorously, and check the seasoning before serving. 

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apple and Fennel Slaw

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons fresh lime

or lemon juice

2 teaspoons wholegrain dijon mustard

kosher salt and ground

black pepper, to taste

2 small fennel bulbs,

cored, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced

(about 2 cups)

1 small tart green

apple, cored and cut

into matchsticks

(about 1 cup)

1 small sweet red

apple, cored and cut

into matchsticks

(about 1 cup)

2 tablespoons chopped

scallions (white and

tender green parts)

1/2 cup pecan pieces,

toasted 

          This colorful slaw combines sweet apple, tart apple, aromatic fennel, and crunchy pecans. The slaw is lightly coated with honey and lime dressing, so it is simple, yet very flavorful. This is fantastic with sandwiches, such as ham or rich grilled cheese.

Makes 4 to 6 Servings

1 Whisk together the mayonnaise, honey, lime juice, and mustard in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

2 Add the fennel, apples, scallions, and pecans and toss to coat with the mayonnaise mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Let sit at least 10 minutes to give the flavors time to blend, stirring occasionally.
Variation: To turn this slaw into a simple salad, toss the fennel, apples, scallions, and pecans with 4 cups of leafy greens and dress with Apple Cider Vinaigrette (recipe follows). You can also add crisp bacon, slivers of country ham, or grilled chicken. what ElsE works? You can replace the fennel with fnely shredded red cabbage or grated celery root.
 

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Ozark Pudding

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons

baking powder

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tart cooking apple,

peeled, cored, and cut

into 1/2-inch pieces

(about 1 cup)

1 cup pecan pieces

1 teaspoon pure

vanilla extract

lightly sweetened

whipped cream,

for serving 

          This is a very simple traditional recipe, just the thing when you want to whip up something quick, easy, and comforting. It’s an odd dessert that seems to be made up of parts from other desserts. The flling is gooey, like pecan pie with bits of apple. The outer edge is bubbly and chewy, like pralines. The top forms a thin, crisp crust that is like a sticky meringue or macaroon. In other words, this is not pudding-cup pudding but pudding in the English sense of the word, meaning dessert in general. There is a strong similarity between Ozark pudding and the Huguenot tortes made around Charleston. I’ve read all sorts of stories about the provenance of this dessert. One account says that Bess Truman invented it to cheer up homesick Harry in the White House. Another tale reports that French Huguenots fleeing persecution brought this recipe over. Another story is that a Charleston
cook tasted Ozark pudding on a trip to the Midwest, brought the recipe home, and prepared it to serve in the Huguenot tavern where she worked. No matter which version you believe, it’s obvious that good recipes get around.

Makes 6 to 8 Servings

1 Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 9-inch square baking dish.

2 Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk the egs and salt until blended and frothy. While whisking vigorously, slowly add the sugar and whisk until thick. Stir in the apples, pecans, and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture, stirring well to incorporate the dry ingredients.

3 Scrape the batter into the prepared dish and smooth the top. Bake until the top crust is browned and the flling is bubbly around the edges, about 40 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving hot or at room temperature with the whipped cream.

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Slow Cooker apple butter

5 1/2 pounds apples,such as a mixtureof rome, Granny
Smith, Cortland,
and Mcintosh
3 cups sugar
4 teaspoons ground
cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon
ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon
ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon
ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons balsamic
vinegar or unfltered
organic cider vinegar 

              Apple butter used to be an all-day affair, simmering apples and seasonings until they collapsed into sweet, spicy preserves. Old-timers cooked gallons of the stuff in copper cauldrons or black wash pots over the coals, stirring for hours with long wooden paddles known as horse heads. Whole communities would gather for “the make.” My grandmother and her friends made gallons of apple butter in the huge pots they used to seal canning jars, adding dishpan after dishpan of
pared apples to the bubbling stew. Whether made by the gallon or by the quart, the key to good apple butter is low, even heat—just what you’ll get from an electric slow cooker. This method is very easy and requires no stirring. Your house will smell divine, as though serious cooking has been deftly done. Be sure to use apples that fall apart into thick sauce when cooked. A mixture
of apples is almost always preferable to any one variety, because each brings its own flavor and characteristics to the pot. I’ve sugested apples that are available almost anywhere, but do take advantage of any heirloom apples that grow where you live. Anyone who grows heirloom apples can describe their taste and use. When I was a little girl, I was taught this old wives’ tale about apple peels. If you manage to peel an apple while keeping the peeling in one long, continuous spiral, you should drop it over your left shoulder and let it fall to the ground. The twisting, looping peel will form the frst letter of the name of your true love. I can assure you, if you are a moony-eyed romantic who wants to see a particular letter, you’ll see it.

 
Makes about 8 Cups 

1 Have ready two 1-quart jars, four 1-pint jars, or eight half-pint jars that have been sterilized in boiling water or run through the dishwasher on the hottest cycle. The jars should have sterilized tight-ftting lids. The jars and lids do not have to stay hot, but they must stay sterile.

2 Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Toss them with the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, and salt.

3 Pack the mixture into a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Be sure that your cooker is at least two-thirds full of raw apples to ensure that they will cook properly. Likewise, don’t fll the cooker so full that the lid does not sit flat on the rim.

4 Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the apples are completely soft and broken down, 8 to 12 hours. Remove the lid, increase the heat to high, and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, about 1 hour. Stir in the vinegar.

5 Purée in a blender (working in batches to not fll the blender more than half full) or purée directly in the cooker with an immersion blender.

6 Ladle the hot apple butter into the prepared jars and cover tightly. Set aside to cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate for up to 6 weeks. Variation: To make apple and sweet potato butter, replace 2 pounds of the apples with peeled and sliced sweet potatoes. To make pear butter, substitute
Kieffer pears.  

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apples in Spiced Ginger Syrup

2 tablespoons thinly

sliced fresh ginger

2 cinnamon sticks

8 whole cloves

1 tablespoon whole

allspice

4 cups apple cider,

preferably unfltered

6 large very crisp apples,

peeled, cored, and

cut into 1/2-inchthick wedges  

         Cooked apples are elemental food where I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. When someone mentioned cooked fruit, it usually meant cooked apples. To this day, if you go to a little meat-and-three joint around there, cooked apples will be one of the choices of sides. Instead of the traditional technique of stewing the apples until they are soft, these are gently poached until barely tender, then refrigerated overnight in the cooking liquid. The next day, the apples are infused with the spices, so the result is somewhere between cooked apples and spiced apples. You can play with the shape of the apples. Sliced is obvious, but you can also cut them into rings or carve out little balls with a melon baller. You can reuse the poaching liquid. Store it covered and refrigerated for up

to one week. It can also be simmered until reduced and used as syrup. If you use red apples, save the peelings and simmer them in the liquid as it reduces. The peelings add flavor and give the syrup a beautiful blush. The syrup is good on pancakes, stirred into hot tea, or drizzled over good cheese to serve with the apples. I usually use full-sized apples, but this is lovely made with a pound or two of

sweet crab apples or lady apples. If you use small apples, cut them in half to remove the tiny cores but do not peel them.

Makes 6 servings

1 Tie the ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and allspice into a square of cheesecloth or place in a tea ball. Place in a large saucepan and add the cider. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add the apples, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer just until the apples are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

2 Set the apples aside to cool to room temperature in the liquid. Remove and discard the spice bag. The apples can be served now, but for best flavor cover and refrigerate in their liquid overnight. Strain the apples, saving the cooking liquid for another use. Serve the apples lightly chilled or gently reheated. Variation: You can use this recipe to poach fresh quinces. Because quinces

are hard as rocks, increase the cooking time to 1 to 2 hours.

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