Goodbye Gourmet

This morning, I woke up to the news that Conde Nast is shutting down Gourmet Magazine; they will continue publishing Bon Appetit. November will hail Gourmet's last print issue but they will remain in other media markets (television an book publishing); perhaps their online presence will continue on, but somehow I doubt it. While I don't read Gourmet on a regular basis, I knew of its fame and fandom, its well-known and -branded EIC Ruth Reichel, and that this farewell is hitting some people harder than others.  And now I'm wishing I paid more attention to it.

I decided to check out the Gourmet website and I must admit that a lot of it appeals to me.  Thoughtful articles, appealing recipes, interesting info and reviews.  They've put together a rundown of fruit desserts, from crisps to buckles, that I found rather helpful and informative, all wrapped up in a tidy short column, with links to correlative recipes.  I like it so much that I want to share it.  Here it is (edited slightly):

Cobbler.  Fruit topped with a crust and baked. Most cobblers have a thick biscuit crust, which can either be cut into rounds (“cobbles”) or left as a single layer.

Crisp.  Fruit is sprinkled with a streusel-like mixture of butter, sugar, flour, and often oatmeal or nuts that has been rubbed together (or pulsed in a food processor). A crisp is called a crumble in Britain.

Brown Betty. Similar to a crisp, but breadcrumbs are used, and they’re layered in with the fruit rather than scattered on top.

Buckle.  Fruit is generally folded into (or sprinkled onto) cake batter and then covered with a topping similar to that found on a crisp; the cake batter will “buckle” as it bakes.

Pandowdy.  Deep-dish fruit dessert that originated in the hearth kitchen as a way to use up leftover dough (typically bread dough) on baking days. The thick crust, which would become as hard as a cracker, was then broken up and left to soak in the cooking juices. The end result was similar to a bread pudding. The pandowdy evolved with the times, and by the 1850s and ’60s, most women had switched to a biscuit crust, which had become the default crust for all baked and steamed fruit desserts. After the 1860s, both biscuit crusts and pie crusts were used. Up until the mid-20th century, apples were the only fruit and molasses the only sweetener used in pandowdies.

 I'd recommend visiting the page for links to recipes.  I know I will.  I make a lot of crisps, and now that it's really apple season, I think it's time to branch out.

And so, though I hardly knew ye, Gourmet, I'll miss you.  I hope Bon Appetit can fill the void, at least a little bit.  Perhaps some "out of the box" thinking will emerge and Gourmet will be thrown a life saver.

EDIT:  This interview with Conde Nast's President-CEO Charles H. Townsend brings to light some of the thought processes behind the shuttering of Gourmet.  I had to laugh, though, when he said, "No, zero." in response to the question, "Are there any more shutdowns to come?"  In this economy, I just can't take him at his word. People should really learn not to make promises they can't absolutely keep.

Image (Cover of February 1974 issue of ''Gourmet'' magazine) scanned by Wikimedia Commons User MakeRocketGoNow