How to Make Fashionable Apple Dumplings – The Victorian Way

Today, it looks like we’ve stumbled across Mrs Crocombe at rest knitting some dishcloths. In actual fact, she’s hard at work; these dishcloths help to produce a rather interesting texture to today’s recipe - Fashionable Apple Dumplings.

English Heritage is a charity, working to preserve the story of England and bring it to life.

INGREDIENTS
Apples (such as Cox's or Russets)
Marmalade (Orange or lemon)

And for the suet crust:
225g flour
85g suet
A generous pinch of salt
Cold water

You will also need some knitted dishcloths.

METHOD
Start by making your suet crust (a type of pastry containing suet). This can be made with 225g flour, 85g suet, a generous pinch of salt and some cold water. Gradually mix the ingredients in a bowl until you have a smooth, elastic dough.

Next, peel and core the apples. Place a few spoonfuls of your favourite marmalade into the hole in the middle of each apple.

Roll out your suet crust dough until it’s thin, then place an apple in the middle and wrap the pastry entirely around it. Cut off any excess, and make sure the suet crust completely seals around the apple until it’s smooth all over. Wrap the apple in a dishcloth that has been coated with melted butter, and tie the top with string to ensure that it’s tightly wrapped. Repeat this process for each apple.

To cook, place the apple parcels into a pan of already boiling water (otherwise the apples will disintegrate). Keep it at a simmer for just under an hour depending on the size of the apples. Once cooked, removed the apple parcels from the pan and carefully remove the cloth. Serve on their own or with cream.

[EnglishHeritage]

Thank you for watching! We’ve anticipated some of your questions about this recipe and have included the answers below. Have another question? Reply to this comment and we’ll aim to answer the most upvoted comments.

HOW DO I MAKE SUET CRUST?
As Mrs Crocombe says, suet crust is really easy. Just gradually combine the following ingredients in a bowl until you have a smooth, elastic dough:
225g flour
85g suet
A generous pinch of salt
Cold water

WHAT IS SUET?
Suet is the hard fat around the kidneys of most animals. It is easily available online, and we would recommend using the real stuff. The leading brand in the UK is Atora, but there are others available . You can get vegetarian suet online as well. If you really can't get it, you could try wrapping your apples in bread dough and see if that works - let us know!

WHAT APPLE VARIETY SHOULD I USE?
Any eating apple should work for this recipe, but we'd advise older varieties such as Cox or Pippin. A Braeburn or Golden Delicious will work. A Bramley or a Granny Smith (or other cooking varieties) won't work as they tend to turn to mush when cooked for this long.

I DON’T HAVE A KNITTED DISHCLOTH, WHAT ELSE CAN I USE?
The cloth gives the dumplings their distinctive pattern, so while you can use a standard (cotton) pudding cloth or tea towel, it won't be quite the same. You can buy them quite easily, or you can knit (or crochet) your own, in which case make sure you use 100% cotton wool. (Usually sold specifically as dishcloth wool).

WOULD MRS CROCOMBE REALLY HAVE TO KNIT HER OWN DISHCLOTHS?
Probably not, no, for you could buy anything! But Kathy Hipperson’s interpretation of Avis Crocombe is that she likes to train her maids in all aspects of the job, as well as preparing them for life beyond the kitchen. Most girls would have learnt to knit from their mothers, as it was a basic life skill at the time. Working as a domestic servant often meant keeping a close eye on the household budget, and that might lead to knitting your own cloths. Many people also enjoyed knitting for pleasure. And yes, Kathy really can knit, and very well too. She really did make most of her own dishcloths for this video.

WHY DOES MRS CROCOMBE SEEM TO BOIL A LOT OF HER DISHES?
Boiling was the most energy efficient way to cook. A vessel full of boiling water could be used to cook many things simultaneously, and frequently the poor in the UK (and elsewhere) would cook their food in bags in a cauldron over the same fire which provided heat for their home. Further up the social scale, cooking over direct heat, either by roasting (in the old sense of cooking in front of a fire), or grilling (in the current American English use, which was also the UK English use of the word until the late 19th century), was also used, but was not efficient at all. Kitchens often used the heat from the roasting fire to heat a cauldron for boiling as well. Baking was only open to those rich enough to afford an oven (unless they took food to the local bakers to be baked). Ovens were neither as controllable or usable as modern ovens -cooking over fire or in a range was both. However, when historic books refer to boiling they use it as a catch all term, and this can be misleading, for they often mean poaching, which is rather gentler.

CAN I BAKE THE DUMPLINGS INSTEAD OF BOILING THEM?
We cannot guarantee the results if you bake them without boiling first, but if you try this approach please report back. We'd advise boiling them for 45 minutes then removing them from the cloth and baking for 10-15m at 180c / 350f.

WHAT DID THEY TASTE LIKE?
Fashionable Apple Dumplings were a second course dish, not dessert, so possibly a bit more savoury than we would imagine a sweet to be today, when we are used to very sweet, rather simple flavours and textures.

[nathanhittle]

I was so relieved Edgar picked the right apples this time 😅

[angelarts]

Is anyone else excited at how she name dropped Edgar, the gardener, in this video? I miss that adorable young man! When is his next video dropping? He has a growing fan base too!!

[JunKurosu]

If mrs crocombe was alive today she'd have her own cooking show

[mandocool]

What are you doing?
Me: *"knitting a dishcloth"*

[CourtneyRussRuss]

Only outfit repeater that looks better each time. Queen.

[xingcat]

"Edgar has done as I requested and found me some uniformly-sized apples. He couldn't appear on this video because I AM THE STAR, ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE CROCOMBE. You shall also need some suet crust...."

[minaly]

Wow those patterns on the apple dumplings are amazing, who knew you can cook with dishcloths?

[dollareuro]

Legend has it Mrs. Crocombe invented the roast

[matt-mdmn]

Welcome back mrs.crocombe...been waiting for ur video so long. Frm Malaysia😀

[dakotacampbell]

So. Can we get a knitting tutorial now- the Victorian way?

[karenm.]

It's always a pleasure to watch Mrs. Crocombe cook. I could watch her all day. Thank you English Heritage for introducing her character to us!

[Rasmia_Oxford]

Every time Mrs Crocombe has something to say about “poor people”, “not very good”, she look right into your eyes.

[VulcanTrekkie]

I know it wouldn't be historically accurate but I really wanna see a collaboration between Mrs Crocombe and Binging with Babish all of a sudden

[klausoshaunacey]

I love the addition of knitting the dishcloths in this episode. It totally adds a really caring and teacher like aspect to Mrs Crocombe, teaching her maids to make sure they can handle jobs outside of Audley End or as higher up kitchen maids once she herself retires!

[danieledugre]

I need a teeshirt that says “for this recipe you will need...”

[m.dilitto]

None of your plebian, 'regular' dumplings in this establishment.

[z]

I love how the knitted cloth imprints it's design in the dumplings. I wonder how different knitting patterns would look!

[marqueewilson]

Mrs. Avis Crocombe has graced us!

(She arrived at 2AM from where I am. Good thing I was still awake😁)

[EDIT: I love how people all over the world tuned into Mrs. Crocombe the moment she appeared after a long time. She's a queen and her kingdom is the world👑]

[davidepallucci]

"For this recipe, you will need" ICONIC