Adam 39;s Apple History

[Hebe Zuelke]

Inpreparing for this recipe, I decided to see how close to Abigail's original taste I could make it. Looking up the ancestry of the versatile Granny Smith apple, I discovered its origin was Australia around 1865. So that would not be what Abigail used. I noticed that a Gravenstein was an heirloom, discovered as a chance seedling in Grsten in South Jutland, Denmark in 1669. That could well be the apple of Abigail's heart, second to John, that is.

A quick search pointed me toward Watsonville's Prevedelli Farms which lists Gravenstein among the many apples it sells. When I asked to buy some Gravenstein Nick Prevedelli said it's a summer apple and not available at this time. When I explained what I was looking for and why, he immediately said "You want Newtown Pippins."

Cut the shortening into the flour and salt with a pastry cutter. Sprinkle the ice water over dough, adding only enough to hold the dough together. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness, brush with 1/4 cup melted butter. Cut pastry in half. Place one half on top of the other. Cut again and again until you have 16 separate pieces piled up. Press them lightly together, then chill the dough for 1 hour. Roll pastry again and cut in half. Roll one half to fit the bottom of the baking dish and the other to fit the top.

Core, peel and slice the apples. Mix with sugar and spices and put in pastry-lined dish. Combine molasses with butter and water. Pour over apples. Cover with top crust and seal. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 325 degrees.

Learn more about Abigail Adams and her husband President John Adams when The Salinas Californian presents The Listening Place, Readers Theater in "The Tye More Binding: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams." The performance takes place 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb.7 at The Californian's offices, 123 W. Alisal Street, Salinas.

Seasoned actors Bob Colter and Suzanne Sturn portray the first couple. She also directs the production. The script is derived from an unpublished manuscript by Dr. Lynn H. Parsons, a well-known historian of colonial America and the early republic.

Abigail was a fierce advocate of rights for women and African Americans, and an important partner throughout John's political career as first Vice-President, and then as President of the country. He sought her advice frequently, and their marriage is one of the great and well documented love relationships in U.S. history.

Cider has several advantages over beer. First of all, even though it takes a few years for the trees to be productive, its easier to grow apples that barly and wheat. It also does not require brewing so the process of making apple cider is far simpler, just juice the apples and allow them to ferment (using airborne yeast). Its also easier to fortify. Applejack is cider that had been further fortified by simply allowing it to freeze, then draining off the alcohol (which freezes at a lower temperature). By aerobically fermenting the apple cores and skins, it is easy to make apple cider vinegar (bacterial fermentation not yeast), which allowed colonists to preserve vegetables through pickling, a godsend during long New England winters.

But by far, the most important person in the history of American Cider is John Chapman. Chapman was an accomplished orchardist and nurseryman in Lexington, Massachusetts. When Jefferson opened up Louisiana, Congress allowed people to lay claim to land through development of a permanent homestead. Such a claim could be made by planting 50 apple trees. So in his travels through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, Chapman would plant swaths of seeds to begin an orchard, then sell them to settlers once the land had grown bountiful. This made him quite the land baron. When he died 1845, he had he traversed 100,000 square miles of Midwestern wilderness and prairie and still owned more than 1200 acres of land.

So in the true sense of American tradition. Enjoy glass of cider for breakfast but not that cloyingly sweet sugar water. No, let it sit a few weeks and enjoy some real apple cider. It will do you good.

3a8082e126