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Meringue of Red Currants
Pick a pound and a half of red currants, and put them into a syrup made of one pound of loaf sugar, a small cupful of water, and two table-spoonfuls of lemon-juice. Simmer gently for ten minutes, then turn them into a dish. When cold, whisk the whites of four eggs with two ounces of castor sugar, and pile this upon the currants. Put it into a quick oven to set and slightly brown, which will only take three or four minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 3d.
A Victorian soft meringue built on stewed red currants rather than a pastry case. It comes together quickly, and the only real skill is judging the oven.
- Quick ovenRead this as 425-450F (220-230C). The point is to colour the meringue before its heat reaches the fruit beneath, which is why the bake is only three or four minutes. Watch it through the door rather than trusting the clock.
- Loaf sugar and castor sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone; ordinary granulated is the equivalent. Castor sugar is superfine sugar, which dissolves into the whisked whites without grittiness -- granulated pulsed briefly in a food processor will do.
- An ovenproof dish"Turn them into a dish" means the dish it will be baked and served in. Use something ovenproof and shallow; a wide dish gives more surface for the meringue and a better ratio of crust to fruit.
- Let the fruit go properly coldPiling meringue on warm currants makes the underside weep and slide. Cold fruit, stiff whites, straight into a hot oven.
- Sealing the meringueSpread it right out to the rim of the dish so it grips the edge. A free-floating island of meringue shrinks and slips off the fruit as it cools.
- Whisking the whitesFour whites with only two ounces of sugar is a lightly sweetened meringue -- soft, not the dry sort. Whisk to firm peaks first, then add the sugar a spoonful at a time and whisk until glossy.
- The currantsFresh red currants have a short summer season and are scarce in many markets; frozen ones work and need no thawing before they go into the syrup. Ten minutes at a gentle simmer is enough to soften them without collapsing them to jam.
- YieldServes about six. It is best eaten the day it is made -- the meringue softens overnight against the wet fruit.
- Probable cost1s 3d is the original's costing in pre-decimal British currency, a useful reminder that Cassell's was written for households keeping close accounts.
Red currants were a staple of the Victorian kitchen garden and of British cookery books far more than they are of British kitchens now: sharp, high in pectin, and ripening in a glut that had to be dealt with in jellies, summer puddings and dishes like this one. The technique here -- cooked fruit under a cap of sweetened whisked whites, browned briefly in a hot oven -- is the same one behind queen of puddings and lemon meringue pie, and it appears widely in nineteenth-century English cookery. Cassell's, which runs to thousands of entries, prices most of its recipes as this one does, which suggests it was aimed at a household reckoning what dinner would cost.