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Pieplant Conserve
1 large pineapple, cut into small pieces, or rather diced. 1/4 pound of almonds, blanched and run through meat grinder. I large pineapple, cut into 2 oranges, rind of one grated, pulp cut into small pieces, or rather diced 4 cups of pieplant, peeled and cut into small pieces Juice of one lemon small pieces pound blanched and run of almonds, through meat grinder 8 cups of sugar Let sugar and fruit stand over night to draw out juice; stir thoroughly and cook rapidly three quarters of an hour or until rather thick.
It will have to be stirred often. The rapid cooking keeps it light in color. Put in nuts ten minutes before taking from fire.
The ingredient list has been scrambled by the original two-column typesetting; read it as pineapple, oranges, pieplant, lemon juice, almonds and sugar, with the instructions running underneath. Once untangled it is a straightforward long-cooked conserve.
- Pieplant is rhubarbThe American name for it through most of the nineteenth century, from its main use. Use trimmed stalks only; the leaves contain oxalic acid and are never eaten. Four cups of small pieces is roughly 1 lb of trimmed stalk.
- Reading the ingredient listIt resolves to: 1 large pineapple cut into small pieces; 2 oranges, rind of one grated and the pulp diced; 4 cups pieplant, peeled and cut small; juice of 1 lemon; blanched almonds run through a meat grinder; 8 cups sugar.
- The almond quantity is lostThe line reads only "pound blanched... almonds" with the number broken off. The original figure cannot be recovered, so any amount between 1/4 and 1/2 lb is a judgment call.
- SugarEight cups is about 3 1/2 lb, close to weight-for-weight with the fruit. That ratio is what sets the conserve and preserves it; cutting it substantially will give you a loose sauce that must be refrigerated.
- The overnight maceration mattersStanding the fruit in sugar draws out juice so the pan starts wet and the sugar is already dissolved. Skip it and the bottom scorches before the rhubarb breaks down.
- Why rapid cookingThe instruction to boil hard is not impatience. A long, slow simmer darkens the syrup and dulls the pineapple; a fast boil at a full rolling stage reaches the setting point sooner and keeps the colour light. Stir constantly toward the end, as this mixture catches easily.
- Nuts lastTen minutes at the end is enough to heat the almonds through without letting them soften into paste.
- Testing the set"Rather thick" is a judgment call; the book gives no thermometer reading. A spoonful that mounds on a chilled saucer is the usual test, and modern soft-spread practice puts the setting point at around 220F at sea level. Three quarters of an hour is a guide, not a rule; pineapple varies a good deal in water content.
- Sealing and yieldThe recipe gives no yield and no sealing directions. For shelf storage follow a current tested water-bath processing time for soft spreads; otherwise refrigerate and use within a few weeks.
"Pieplant" was an ordinary American word for rhubarb well into the twentieth century, and it tells you what the stalks were mostly for. A conserve, as distinct from a jam or a preserve, is generally a mixed-fruit spread that includes citrus and nuts, and it was usually treated as the fancy end of the preserving shelf: something to serve with cold meat or on a tea table rather than to spread on breakfast toast. The recipe calls for a whole fresh pineapple, and the almonds are run through a meat grinder, a common household tool for chopping nuts before food processors. Rhubarb was valued in preserving books because it comes in early, before the berry season, is high in acid, and takes on the flavour of whatever it is cooked with, which is exactly the job it does here against the pineapple and orange.