Apple Sauce for Goose (1861)
Reader ratingsIsabella Beeton’s 1861 apple sauce for goose and pork: cooking apples boiled to a pulp with a little water, beaten with sugar to taste and a piece of butter.
- Recipe makes
- About 750 ml, serving 8
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Cooking apples such as Bramleys fall to a pulp in about 20 minutes. The sauce can be made a day ahead and warmed through.
Apple sauce in a sauceboat beside a cooking apple.
The story behind the recipe
Sugar “to taste” is all Isabella Beeton says about sweetening her apple sauce of 1861, a recipe four ingredients long and written “for geese, pork, &c.” In A Christmas Carol that job is Belinda Cratchit’s, in the scramble before the goose is carved: “Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce.”
Goose and apple, side by side
Beeton kept it plain: apples, water to moisten them, sugar, and “a piece of butter the size of a walnut,” with the cut fruit kept in cold water “to preserve their whiteness.” Her six good-sized apples were “sufficient ... for a goose or couple of ducks” and cost 4d., about £2 today by UK consumer prices (Bank of England). Her roast goose recipe sends the sauce to the table in its own tureen, beside one of gravy.
Alexis Soyer, in his 1854 cookbook for working families, put the pairing into four words in his notes on roasting poultry: “Apple sauce with goose.” His own apple sauce takes brown sugar and is meant, he wrote, for “roast pork, goose, and duck.”
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Beeton allows about three-quarters of an hour for her apples, “according to the apples.” Cooking apples such as Bramleys usually fall to a pulp much sooner, in around 20 minutes, so we go by the look of the fruit rather than the clock. Her sugar is “to taste,” and the 30 grams here is only a starting point for sharp apples; sweeten it further, as Belinda did, if it needs it. The walnut of butter is about 15 grams.
The sauce belongs with Roast Goose with Sage and Onion Stuffing (1861), and Beeton’s title names pork too. For Belinda’s part in the whole dinner, read What Did the Cratchits Eat for Christmas Dinner?
APPLE SAUCE FOR GEESE, PORK, &c.
363. INGREDIENTS.—6 good-sized apples, sifted sugar to taste, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, water.
Mode.—Pare, core, and quarter the apples, and throw them into cold water to preserve their whiteness. Put them in a saucepan, with sufficient water to moisten them, and boil till soft enough to pulp. Beat them up, adding sugar to taste, and a small piece of butter This quantity is sufficient for a good-sized tureen.
Time.—According to the apples, about ¾ hour. Average cost, 4d.
Sufficient, this quantity, for a goose or couple of ducks.
Recipe makes: About 750 ml, serving 8
Ingredients
For about 750 ml, serving 8. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 750 ml, serving 8.
- Cooking apples , such as Bramley6Author measures: about 1.1 kg.
- Water4 tbsp
- Sugar30 g
- Butter15 g
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 6 cooking apples (about 1.1 kg), such as Bramley
- 4 tbsp water
- 30 g sugar
- 15 g butter
Equipment
- Bowl of cold water
Saucepan with a lid
Wooden spoon- Sauceboat or small tureen
Instructions
Peel, core and quarter the cooking apples, dropping each piece into the bowl of cold water as you go.
Drain the apples and put them in the saucepan with the water. Cover and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the apples have fallen to a soft pulp.
Beat the apples smooth with the wooden spoon. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves, then taste and add more if the sauce is too sharp.
Take the pan off the heat and beat in the butter. Serve warm or at room temperature in a sauceboat.
Nutrition
100calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 750 ml, serving 8
- Servings
- 8
Estimated per serving (8) from USDA FoodData Central values for peeled raw apples, sugar and butter.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Beeton’s six good-sized apples make a sauce for one goose or two ducks.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Dessert apples hold their shape and need longer, closer to Beeton’s three-quarters of an hour, and less sugar. Beeton asks for sifted sugar; Soyer’s 1854 sauce uses brown. Our changes: Bramley-type cooking apples, a set amount of water, a starting amount of sugar, and the time judged by the fruit. Kept covered in the refrigerator, the sauce lasts about 4 days.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management (London: S. O. Beeton, 1861), Apple Sauce for Geese, Pork, &c., no. 363
Recipe details
- Course
- Side dish
- Dish family
- Vegetables & Sides
- Region
- British
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1860s
- Main ingredient
- Fruit
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Christmas
- Season
- Winter