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Strawberry Mixture
Wash two quarts strawberries; hull and cut each berry in half. Prepare a syrup by boiling together two cups sugar and one-half cup water four minutes, cool and pour syrup over berries, or sprinkle raw sugar over berries and let stand one hour. Lift the berries from syrup and place between layer and on top of short cake. Strain syrup into a pitcher or bowl and pass with each portion of short cake.
A shortcake filling rather than a dish in itself: the point is the cooked syrup, which keeps the berries whole and glossy instead of collapsing them into juice.
- YieldTwo quarts of berries is enough to fill and top a good-sized layered shortcake; the recipe itself gives no yield or servings. Two cups of sugar is generous by modern taste; a cup and a half suits ripe fruit.
- The syrupTwo cups sugar to half a cup water is a heavy syrup that thickens noticeably on cooling. Stir only until the sugar dissolves, then leave it alone to avoid crystallising, and cool it fully before it touches the berries, as the recipe directs.
- Raw sugar, the alternative"Raw sugar" here most likely means simply uncooked sugar sprinkled on the fruit rather than today's turbinado. An hour of macerating draws out juice, but the result is looser and more watery than the boiled syrup.
- Halving the berriesCut halves hold their shape between layers; quartering or crushing gives you juice that soaks the cake through. If your strawberries are the large modern cultivars, quarter the biggest ones rather than crushing.
- Lifting and strainingDrain the berries thoroughly in a sieve set over a bowl before assembling, or the shortcake goes soggy in minutes. The strained syrup passed at the table is what makes this work; serve it in a small pitcher.
- TimingAssemble within a few minutes of serving. The berries can sit in syrup for an hour or two, refrigerated, but once they are on the cake it should go straight to the table.
- Shortcake not includedThe recipe assumes a shortcake baked or split into layers, since the berries go between the layer and on top. Sponge or store-bought cups will not absorb the syrup the same way.
Strawberry shortcake as an American Sunday dish belongs to the late spring, and cookbooks of this period organised themselves around exactly that: 52 Sunday Dinners gives one menu a week, so strawberries fall where the season puts them. The separation of fruit from syrup here may reflect a wish to keep the fruit looking like fruit on the plate, with the sweetened juice offered separately so each diner could moisten the cake to taste. The technique of pouring cooled boiled syrup over raw berries resembles that used for preserves and compotes of the era, borrowed to keep the cut fruit firm rather than to keep it; before household refrigeration, a dish like this was made and eaten the same afternoon.