SusieJ's Advent Calendar December 13, 2011

Slicing apples

Slicing apples for pie or cake is the most tedious part of baking of the recipe. The trick is not to work on one apple at a time, but to core all the apples, then peel, then slice. It's all about minimizing movement and tool switching.

In the work area, I have two large bowls (one for the waiting apples, one for the completed), a small bowl for scraps, a cutting board, a six- or eight-inch utility knife, a paring knife, a peeler, and a melon baller. Whatever sugar or spices the apples will be coated with is already measured and on the counter.

Wash the apples and put them in a large bowl, and put the bowl to one side of the cutting board. The other large bowl goes on the other side of the cutting board. Grab the utility knife and an apple, and slice it in half. The sliced halves go into the empty bowl.

[My sister, photographing me, December 1971]After all the apples are halved, grab a half apple and the melon baller. Use the mellon baller to scoop out the seed in the middle. The seeds go into the scrap bowl, the cored half into the empty bowl.

Next, quarter the cored halves with the utility knife, emptying one bowl and filling the other. Finish coring by laying an apple quarter flat side on the cutting board. Hold the utility knife at a 45-degree angle (halfway between straight up and down and flat) and slice the top and bottom of the core in one stroke. Not much of the apple needs to be removed.

Peel the cored quarters, then slice with the paring knife into the empty bowl. After slicing two or three quarters, sprinkle whatever spice or sugar mixture the recipe calls for. Slicing all the apples and mixing them at the end leads to apple slice escapees on the floor.

This sounds like a lot of work, but it's much faster than halving an apple, switching tools, coring it, switching tools again, quartering, coring, peeling, slicing ... and starting on the next apple. I get into an efficient rhythm. After a few times slicing apples this way, I found I like to keep the waiting apples on my left because I'm right handed. The hand without the tool picks up the apple to work on. Once a bowl is filled and I'm on to the next step, the bowls switch places.