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Greengage Mould
Take a pint and a half of greengages, fully ripe; skin, and stone them, and put them into a preserving-pan, with ten ounces of loaf sugar and a quarter of the kernels, blanched and sliced; boil until reduced to pulp. Dissolve a quarter of an ounce of isinglass, or gelatine, in a little boiling water; add it to the marmalade, and pour into an oiled mould. Let the fruit remain until firm. When wanted for use, turn it out on a glass dish. Serve whipped cream or custard round it. Time, an hour and a half to boil the fruit. Sufficient for four or five persons. Probable cost, 10d. for the mould.
A straightforward set fruit pulp, but two things in the original need attention before you start: the kernels, and the boiling time.
- Leave out the kernelsPlum stones, greengages included, contain amygdalin and taste of bitter almond for exactly that reason. The quantity here is small and much of what is released during a long open boil will be driven off, but there is no reason to include them today. A drop of almond extract gives the same flavour note with none of the question.
- Ninety minutes is far too longNinety minutes is far longer than needed -- On a modern burner, skinned and stoned greengages with sugar will collapse to a thick pulp in roughly 25 to 40 minutes. Judge by consistency: it should mound on a spoon, not run.
- A pint and a half of fruitFruit here was measured by volume. Reckon roughly 1 to 1½ lb (500-700 g) of whole greengages, yielding something under a pint of pulp once skinned and stoned.
- Loaf sugarRefined cane sugar, sold in a solid cone and broken up with nippers. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct equivalent; 10 oz is about 1⅓ to 1½ cups.
- Isinglass or gelatineIsinglass is dried fish swim bladder, once the standard setting agent. A quarter ounce is about 7 g, or roughly 2½ teaspoons of powdered gelatine, or three to four leaves depending on grade. Soften it in cold water first, dissolve in a little hot water, and stir it into the pulp off the heat. Gelatine boiled hard loses strength.
- The oiled mouldUse a flavourless oil, wiped on thinly. A 1 pint (600 ml) mould suits this quantity. Chill at least four hours, preferably overnight. To turn out, dip the mould briefly in hot water and invert onto a wetted plate so the mould can be slid into position.
- YieldFour to five as the book says, as part of a larger meal. The tenpence quoted is the whole cost of the mould in late Victorian money.
The greengage is the round green plum the French call Reine Claude, after the queen of François I; the English name is generally traced to Sir William Gage, whose Suffolk family is said to have imported the trees from France in the early eighteenth century with their labels lost. Its short late-summer season and high sugar made it a preserving fruit above all, and it lent itself to the moulded sweets of the period: fruit pulp stiffened with isinglass, turned out of a shaped tin, and ringed with cream or custard.