11/04/2023
The ever diligent Regula Ysewijn explains in her book Pride and Pudding that, despite attempts to credit it to the superstar 19th-century chef Marie-Antoine Carême, the first print recipe for apple charlotte appears in John Mollard’s 1802 The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined, probably named after the wife of King George III, at a time when Carême was still a mere apprentice.
As this pedigree suggests, this is an elegant dish perhaps more suited to dinner parties than crumbles or pies are; the kind of thing at home on the tables of royalty, back when British royalty was known for more than its thrifty ways with cornflakes. Happily, it’s also both pretty cheap and very simple to make, even without the palace kitchens at your disposal.
