zxcvbob wrote:

> emailed and posted:
>
> zxcvbob wrote:
>
>> Bob (this one) wrote:
>>
>>> I didn't want to make a crust, but I wanted to make a tarte
>>> Tatin. I
had six ginger gold apples that I wanted to cook.
>>>
>>> Got down the cast iron skillet and melted 3/4 stick of butter in
>>> it.
Added 3/4 cup sugar and cooked it until it was bubbling and medium-dark
brown. Stirred with a wooden spoon. . .
>>
>>
>> Would a little cinnamon be out of place in this? Or what about
>> using
brown sugar to make the caramel? I've never had the classic tarte
tatin, so I don't know what to expect. Thanks.
>>
>> There's apples all over the kitchen (dogs knocked over and ripped a
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
half-bushel bag of apples) and I'm looking for interesting ways to cook
some of 'em (the apples, not the dogs)
>>
>> Best regards, Bob
>
>
>
>
> I tried making this tonight, and I think there's something wrong with
>
>
>
>
>
the recipe. I even used real butter. I melted the butter and added the
sugar and cooked it over medium low heat until the sugar melted. I
stirred with a wooden spatula and thought it was odd that the sugar
would not take up the melted butter.


Bob:

It doesn't make a solution; it can't. The butter melts and gets up to
275° or 300° and the sugar browns. It's a caramel and butterfat
combination, but they don't form a solution. They remain separate. You
tried for a result that isn't what happens. And, I suspect, you had the
temperature set too high.

> Shouldn't there be more liquid in here -- perhaps 1/4 cup of cream?


No.

> This is never going to bubble! But I turned the heat down a little
and kept cooking and finally it did start absorbing the oil and even
bubbled started bubbling, but not until the butter was smoking hot.


Way too hot. Lower temperature, stir a lot...

> That would put the temperature well in excess of 400 degrees. The
caramel was medium-dark brown, and I removed it from the heat while I
quickly quartered and cored the apples and then cut the quarters into 2
or 3 slices.


Quarters or eights are the usual.

> Meanwhile the caramel continued to darken and bubble a little even
though it was on a cold burner. Maybe the sugar breaking down was being
catalyzed by the iron?


No. It was doing what sugar and butter so handled will do irrespective
of pot. The caramel should be stirred so it doesn't burn and taste bitter.

> I don't know. I added the apples to the caramel and stirred them in
> (I didn't do that fan thing)

You want to do that fan thing - lay the apples in on top of the caramel
- because it maintains a layer of caramel between the apples and the
pan. Stirring lifts the caramel and lets the apples stick to the bared
metal.

> and by now the caramel was full-dark, about the color of weak coffee.
> I put it on low heat and basted the apples with the caramel, and
> after the apple juice had thinned and cooled it a bit, I tasted it.
> It was slightly sweet and quite bitter -- but not a good kind of
> bitter. It vaguely reminded me of some orange-colored penicillin
> syrup I had to take once as a kid.

Scorched sugar.

> Needless to say, I'm not going to put a topping on it and bake it,
> I'm going to throw it out. On the bright side, it did use up some of
> those apples. Maybe I screwed something up, but I don't see how; and
> chemically the recipe doesn't make sense. Is there supposed to be
> some kind of liquid added at the beginning? The moisture in the
> butter is not enough to dissolve the sugar, even at high
> temperatures.

You're not trying to dissolve the sugar, you're just cooking it in a fat
matrix with which it will never combine. You're making caramel, not a
syrup. It will become a caramel syrup when the apples surrender their
juices and thin it.

> The only way it can eventually bubble is for water to be driven out
> of the sugar molecules.

Actually, no. Sugar, even in the presence of the small amount of water
in the butter, will boil. And sugar alone will boil when melted in a hot
pan once it reaches a caramelization point. Water dissociates from the
sugar molecules at that point. It should be cooked on medium heat with
almost constant stirring. The sugar will caramelize and darken. The
butter is merely a medium to cook the sugar and remains separate. The
butter will end up throughout the tarte and do what butter in any apple
pie does.

> Or do you cut up the apples before starting the caramel, and add them
> as soon as the sugar is melted instead of waiting for it to bubble?

No. The caramel should bubble and darken before adding the apples. It
sounds like you were looking for results not intended by the recipe.

You should have the apples done in advance, just as a matter of a full
mise en place. That way, the caramel and apples don't have to wait for you.

My suggestion is to do the recipe as written one time. Then do whatever
variations you want once you know how it should be. Maybe google a bit
to see how others do it.

Sorry for what looks like unclear recipe writing on my part.

Pastorio