Apple Pan Dowdy

It was old and gnarled and had lost its beauty long ago.  The bark was rough, the branches uneven; it had weathered many storms.  It also held traces of my initials, the ones I'd tried to carve with a tiny pink pocket knife that Uncle Bill gave to me. I didn't have that little knife very long, not after I used it to peel the bark from Mom's prized oak leaf hydrangea, even though it hadn't hurt the hydrangea a bit.  But the apple tree was still standing behind our house, old as the mountain it grew on, Ninna said. It had been there longer than she had.

The old apple tree held my swing when I was a little girl; that swing could go as high as the sky and I'd grab those apples right off the limbs.  It wasn't that the tree produced many apples, old as it was, but those it did give us provided my favorite desserts for many years.

Recently my 8 year old grandson said to me, "Great apple, Nana, tastes just like sunshine!"  He and I were outside nibbling our breakfast of sliced fruit and warm summer sun.

I reckon I told my Ninna that a time or two myself; she and I nibbled our way through many sunny gardens.  There was a time when I thought apples were the only sweets we had.  During the war years, stores were few and far between and mostly carried only necessities.  With no vehicle, we didn't travel far out of the holler.  Ninna made do with what we had and we had that old apple tree.  It produced green apples in June but I'm not sure of its variety, we only knew it as the June Apple Tree.  I remember the apples were sour if I picked them from the tree but if I let them fall to the ground they were sweeter and a little yellower. I raced outside the back door every summer morning, getting to the apples before the raccoons came calling; if I could get a bucket full, Ninna was sure to make something wonderful for supper.  They were absolutely the very best cooking apples.

Every time I brought in a bucket of apples, my mom would sing:

♫ Shoo fly pie and apple pan dowdy; Makes the sun come out when the heavens are cloudy ♫

The little green apples tasted just like sunshine!

Apple trees don't grow very big. They are small deciduous trees that produce a five petaled white bloom in spring which soon becomes a little round green fruit that will grow into its goodness in a few short weeks.  We are all familiar with the apple tree so there isn't much reason to spend time describing it, but it's such a valuable plant it's worthy of a bit of our attention.  Malus domestica originated in central Asia and has been mentioned in one form or another throughout recorded history. As most of our ancient plants do, apples played a rich role in myths and legends.

The forbidden fruit in the Book of Genesis isn't identified, but popular tradition holds that it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to bite into, one from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eventually the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation and sin.  In Latin, the words for "apple" and for "evil" are similar (mālum "an apple" and mălum "an evil, a misfortune"), the difference is only in the sound of the word, so it might have been the ancient Romans who gave the apple a bad name.  They are also those who first began cultivating apples.

In ancient Greek mythology to throw an apple at someone meant true love and if the apple was caught and tossed back, then true love was returned. I always wondered what happened if the loved one missed the toss or if the apple hit the wrong person. It could have led to broken hearts and lots of smashed apples.

One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all foreign fruit, other than berries, but including nuts, as late as the 17th century.  Can't you just imagine having a basket full of nuts and calling them apples, or adding 'apples' to your Christmas fudge?  Terminology can be befuddling.

Only the crabapple is native to North America, but there has been a large gene exchange between it and the apple trees that came with the colonists. Today there are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples. Different cultivars are bred for various tastes and uses, to be used in cooking, fresh eating and cider production. Domestic apples are generally propagated by grafting, although wild apples grow readily from seed.  I suspect my June apple tree was from seed.

But let's see how the apple applies to us.  We've heard it since we were children:  "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."  The health effects of the fruit have been established for many years, too. Research suggests that apples may reduce the risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer.  Compared to many other fruits and vegetables, apples contain relatively low amounts of vitamin C, but are a rich source of other antioxidant compounds.  Apple's antioxidant property prevents damage to cells and tissue and it is the fiber content that helps reduce the risk of colon cancer.  Studies show apples may also help with heart disease, weight loss, and controlling cholesterol. They also contain potassium.

Truth is, apples are a comfort food and comfort food is a prized commodity in our fast food world.  Most likely they are at the top of the list of our most eaten fruits.  Whether raw with peanut butter, cooked with cinnamon, or sipped as cider, they should become a part of our regular daily diet.

I hate to tell you this, but shoo fly pie, mentioned in the song above, doesn't contain apples; it's a molasses pie made by adding beaten eggs and a bit of baking soda to warm molasses. Watching the soda make the molasses fizz was the best part of shoo fly pie.  On the other hand,  apple pan dowdy is great!  I spent some hours today trying to remember all the 'apple' foods that I grew up with. The list is mouth-wateringly long, but you must remember it was the only dessert I had for many years and I can still smell the scent of apples and cinnamon wafting up and down that little holler whenever Ninna had a bucket full of apples.

I had a small lard bucket that had a wire handle. The little green apples in the back yard were indeed tiny by today's standards but if I filled my lard bucket with them, there would be just enough for apple pan dowdy. I started searching for perfect apples early in the morning.

I'd hear Ninna humming in the kitchen, and occasionally I'd hear Mom ask, "Where is she?"

"She's out back, gatherin' apples,"  Ninna answered.

"Checkin' for worms, Mama!" I'd yell.

Ninna would hum again, Mama might sing, and I'd continue my search. I had eaten enough worms to know that if the apples had little brown holes anywhere in them, chances are they held a worm, too.  I wanted no worms in my apple pan dowdy.  The apples that went into my lard bucket had to be perfect.

Eventually the little bucket would be filled and I'd bring my harvest to Ninna in the kitchen. Sometime along the way she taught me to use a paring knife and I helped peel that bucket of apples one by one, checking carefully again for worms.  Ninna sliced them and dropped the slices into an old metal measuring cup while I gathered all the ingredients she'd need for baking.  That involved a stepstool and slammed cabinet doors and rattled drawers and my mother coming to the kitchen to see what all the racket was about. It didn't, however, stop the process because Mom loved apple pan dowdy too.

Here's the recipe, guaranteed to make you hungry:

Ingredients

Directions

The recipe isn't Ninna's, I found it here. Hers was baked in a larger pan in a wood burning stove, but the flavor and the scent are very similar; except for amounts, I think it's close enough.

Apples (Malus) Uploaded by sandnsea2

Apples (Malus) Uploaded by sandnsea2

Apples played a huge part in all our holidays, but more than the scent of cinnamon and the flavor of apples, I remember all the lessons and love associated with them.  I hope you have kitchen memories as warm as mine are. 

After you've finished the last bite of your apple pan dowdy, you might want to think about planting an apple tree in your own back yard.  I can tell you for sure, the apples will taste just like sunshine.

(Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy, recorded by Dinah Shore and #8 on the Billboard Bestseller list in 1946.)