Home › The Principles of Cookery › Fruit, Macedoine Of
Fruit, Macedoine Of
Set a jelly-mould into a pail of rough ice and salt, and arrange the fruits according to fancy, between layers of clear well-sweetened jelly, flavoured with some liqueur, as noyeau or maraschino. If the jelly be poured into the mould an hour before it is required, the outside will be sufficiently frozen, and the inner part will be as firm as can be desired. When removed from the ice-pail, turn out the jelly on a glass dish, first dipping the mould into tepid water, which will loosen it immediately. The mould should be covered while in the ice, and the top or cover hid from sight by more ice and salt.
A layered fruit jelly set in an ice-and-salt bath, from the era before domestic refrigeration. The method translates directly to a refrigerator, but the layering discipline is what decides whether it succeeds.
- The hinge: set each layer before adding the nextPour a shallow depth of jelly, let it set to a firm wobble in the fridge, then arrange fruit on it and cover with more cool (not warm) jelly. Adding liquid jelly to a soft layer floats the fruit and muddies the pattern.
- Ice and salt, translatedA pail of rough ice and coarse salt was a freezing bath, dropping well below 0C, which is why the outside firmed in an hour while the centre stayed merely set. A refrigerator at 4C does the same job, but allow four to six hours, or overnight for a large mould.
- JellyPeriod jelly meant calf's-foot stock or isinglass, clarified with egg white. For powdered gelatine, allow about 1/2 to 1 oz (roughly 15-28 g, two to four sachets) per quart of liquid, erring towards the firmer end so the jelly will stand when turned out; a soft set will collapse on the dish.
- The liqueurNoyeau (noyau) is an almond-scented liqueur historically made by steeping stone fruit kernels; maraschino comes from marasca cherries. Both are still sold. Keep the total spirit to about 2-3 tablespoons per quart, as alcohol weakens the set.
- Fruit that will not setFresh pineapple, kiwi, papaya and fig carry enzymes that digest gelatine and leave a puddle. Use them tinned or briefly poached, or leave them out. Fruit should also be well drained, or its juice will thin the jelly around it.
- "Well-sweetened" and clearThe jelly was sweetened generously because cold blunts sweetness, and clarity mattered as much as flavour. Strain the jelly through a damp cloth before use and skim any foam, or the layers will look cloudy against the fruit.
- UnmouldingTepid means tepid: a three- to five-second dip, no more. Longer and the outer surface melts to a slick and the pattern blurs. Loosen the top edge with a wet fingertip and invert onto a wetted glass dish so the jelly can be slid into position.
- YieldA 1.5-quart mould serves eight to ten.
Macédoine is French kitchen shorthand for a mixture of many small pieces, often said to derive from the idea of Macedonia as a patchwork of peoples under Alexander, though the derivation is folk tradition; by the nineteenth century it covered both diced vegetables in butter and diced fruit in syrup or jelly. This version belongs to the ice-house age, when a confectioner's freezing pail of broken ice and coarse salt was the only way to chill a mould quickly, and the instruction to cover the mould and bury the lid under more ice kept the cold on all sides. The point was the arrangement: a well-built macedoine was a display piece, the fruit suspended in cleared jelly and read through the glass like a specimen case, and the choice of noyeau or maraschino marks it as a dessert for a formal table rather than a family one.