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Fruit Pastes
These pastes are prepared by stoning the fruits, and pulping them, after slowly boiling, through a sieve. The pulp is then returned to the pan to dry up the moisture, when sugar is added equal in weight to the paste; it is again mixed well, and dried slowly, until no impression can be made upon it. Spread out on plates, which should be wetted with brandy. When cold, store between layers of paper. Pastes made from elder fruit and black currants are excellent, considered medicinally.
This is the method for a fruit cheese or paste — quince paste, damson cheese, membrillo all follow it. The instructions are compressed to the point of being a formula rather than a recipe, so the details below fill in what a Victorian cook would have taken for granted.
- The hinge: cook the pulp down before the sugar goes inSugar added to a wet purée sets the water content and you will boil for hours chasing it. Reduce the sieved pulp in a wide pan until it is thick enough to mound on a spoon, then add the sugar by weight.
- "Equal in weight to the paste"Weigh the reduced pulp after sieving and match it gram for gram with granulated sugar. With a sharp fruit such as black currant this gives a firm, sliceable paste; with a sweet fruit you can go to three-quarters sugar, though it will keep less well.
- Pan and stirringUse a heavy wide pan, not a tall one, and a long-handled spoon. Once the sugar is in, the mixture spits like lava and scorches quickly — keep it moving over low heat.
- "Until no impression can be made upon it"The mixture should be stiff enough that a spoon drawn through leaves a clean channel that does not flow back, and the mass pulls away from the pan bottom. A sugar thermometer reading of roughly 105-107C (221-225F) marks the point at which a fruit paste will set, though the recipe's own test comes later, after the slow drying, when the surface takes no impression. Expect a good deal of stirring, the time varying with the fruit.
- Drying and the brandySpread 1-2 cm thick on parchment-lined trays rather than brandy-wetted plates; the brandy most likely served to stop sticking and may also have discouraged mould, though the recipe does not say. Dry in an oven at its lowest setting, 50-70C (120-160F), with the door propped, for 12-24 hours until the surface is dry to the touch.
- Stoning and sievingBoil stone fruit whole and slowly until collapsed, then press through a nylon or stainless sieve — the stones and skins stay behind, which is easier than pitting raw fruit. Avoid unlined copper or iron with acid fruit.
- ElderberriesStrip the berries from every trace of stalk and leaf; the green parts of the elder are toxic and the berries themselves must be thoroughly cooked, which this long boiling accomplishes. Elderberry pulp is thin and needs longer reduction than currant.
- Yield and keepingYield varies widely with the fruit and how far the paste is dried, since an equal weight of sugar is added to the reduced pulp. Stored between layers of parchment in a tin in a cool dry place it keeps for months; refrigerate in humid conditions, as the surface will weep or mould if it re-absorbs moisture.
Fruit pastes belong to the oldest branch of confectionery: boiling fruit pulp with its own weight of sugar was, before canning, one of the few reliable ways to hold a fruit crop for a year, and the same technique produced Spanish membrillo, Portuguese marmelada and the English "damson cheese" that was cut in slices and eaten with game or cold meat. The entry is written as a general formula rather than as a recipe for one named fruit, to be applied to whatever the garden or hedgerow gave up. The closing remark that elder and black currant pastes are "excellent, considered medicinally" reflects a long domestic tradition -- not documented pharmacology -- of treating both fruits as remedies for colds and sore throats; elderberry rob is well attested as a household cold remedy, and the sugar that preserved the fruit also made the dose palatable.