Culinary Antiquity: Fruit Cobbler
And a recipe for peach and paprika cornmeal cobbler.
Our Culinary Antiquity series aims to teach you the history of our favorite dishes and drinks. If you are new to the community, welcome! If you want to be a part of our food community, make sure you subscribe.
Cobblers (not to be confused with the equally delicious crisps and crumbles) originated in the American West during the second half of the 19th century. It was a deep-dish thick, no frills, quick crust filled with whatever fruit was on hand.
But why call it cobbler?
The earliest meaning of the word "cobbler" refers to one who makes and mends shoes. It also took on a semantic slang that came to mean "to put together clumsily or roughly" according to the American Heritage Dictionary. A cobbler requires less precision of crust or the placing of the filling, which might have something to do with the name.
The first printed recipe of Cobbler listed the dish as "Peach Pie-or cobbler as often termed" in the Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan.
"A Peach pot pie, or cobbler, as it is often termed, should be made of clingstone peaches, that are very ripe, and then pared and sliced from the stones. Prepare a pot or oven with paste, as directed for the apple pot-pie, put in the prepared peaches, sprinkle on a large handful of brown sugar, and pour in plenty of water to cook the peaches without burning them, though there should be very little liquor or syrup when the pie is done. Put a paste over the top, and bake it with moderate heat, raising the lid occasionally, to see how it is baking. When the crust is brown, and the peaches very soft, invert the crust on a large dish, put the peaches evenly on, and grate loaf sugar thickly over it. Eat it warm or cold. Although it is not a fashionable pie for company, it is very excellent for family use, with cold sweet milk." ---The Kentucky Housewife
It seems that the use of peaches in cobbler was very popular. In 1913, the wife of Indiana’s governor was quoted as saying, “essentials of a good home are good fried chicken, nice hot biscuits and peach cobbler.” Obviously, we agree.
Last week we explored cooking with bitters, so here again in this peach cobbler, we’re using angostura bitters in the peach filling in addition to paprika, white pepper, and ginger. Then, we topped the filling with fluffy cornmeal biscuit dough.
Peach & Paprika Cornmeal Cobbler
Ingredients:
For the biscuit dough:
3 1/4 ounces cake flour
3 1/4 ounces all-purpose flour
3 1/2 ounces cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
4 1/2 ounces unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup heavy cream, cold
1 tablespoon heavy cream, for brushing
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
For the peach filling:
5 cups of sliced peaches
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2⁄3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1⁄8 teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 to 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Ice cream or whip cream, for topping *optional, but why not?*
Directions:
For the biscuits:
Mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Dump onto the countertop. Remove the butter from the fridge and, using a bench scraper, cut in the butter, using your fingers to flatten the pieces. Work quickly to keep the butter very cold. The butter should change from looking lumpy to looking flakey.
Add the cream and mix until it just begins to form a dough.
For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Slice the peaches into ½-inch slices, add to a large bowl, and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Add the granulated and brown sugars, corn starch, paprika, white pepper, allspice, ginger, salt, and bitters, and toss well to combine. Spoon the filling into a casserole dish or glass pie dish.
Using an ice cream scoop or spoon, add scoops of biscuit dough, leaving at least 1/2inch of room between the biscuits.
Chill the cobbler in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter in the pastry.
Brush the biscuits with cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake the cobbler until the biscuits are golden brown and the filling is bubbling in the middle, about 45 minutes.
Have a dish we should explore the history of next? Leave your ideas in the comments below.