From Our Test Kitchen: Lillie Hitchcock Coit's Apple Cheese Cake

Photo: [Lillie Hitchcock Coit] n.d. Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

In honor of One City One Book, this month's Test Kitchen features a recipe from one of Alive In Necropolis' most influential ghost characters, the colorful San Francisco heiress, Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She is famous for her devotion to the San Francisco Volunteer Fire Department Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5 and for Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill which was built with the money she bequeathed to the city. However, Lillie was also a connoisseur of fine food and dined often at San Francisco's famous French restaurant, The Poodle Dog. She also kept her own recipe book.

The Recipe Book of Lillie Hitchcock Coit is filled with recipes that she collected in the 1870s and 1880s. It was transcribed and published by the Friends of the Bancroft Library in 1998.

For the Sixth Floor Test Kitchen, I decided to attempt Lillie's Apple Cheese Cake, a recipe which she procured from a Mrs. Simpson.

1 lb steamed and mashed tart apples
3/4 lb sugar
1/2 lb Butter
1/2 pint rich milk or cream
6 Eggs
Juice & grated rind of a lemon
1 grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powdered
Sherry glass of brandy

Bake in a crust & mix like the squash pie. The sugar depends on the tartness of the apples, if not sweet enough add 1/4 lb more. Bake them thick and full.

Courtesy of Friends of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. From The Recipe Book of Lillie Hitchcock Coit Introduction by Carol Hart Field; edited by John C. Craig; transcribed by Barbara Hoddy. 1998.

Despite its name, the final product turned out to be neither cheesy nor "cakey". Instead it was a pie, very much like a pumpkin pie with apples in place of the squash. What made it extra special were the apples Wendy brought in, picked from a tree in her Mission District backyard! Oh, and just so you know, this recipe actually makes two pies.

So, how was it? We put it to our Sixth Floor testers and this is what we heard:

"Not too sweet, not too creamy" - Tami, ...and she meant this to be a good thing!
"You can make this one again" - Tom, after the initial query, "This doesn't involve alligator pears, does it?"

All in all, we can call the Apple Cheese Cake a stunning success! Want to try your hand at one of Lillie Hitchcock Coit's recipes? Come on up to the San Francisco History Center on the Sixth Floor of the SF Main Library to see more. And if you'd like to know more about Lillie herself, the SF History Center has a wealth of information, including her original diary from 1872 in the Small Manuscripts Collection(pdf) - it is an amazing read!

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