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Plums, Compote Of
Boil half a pint of water with from six to ten ounces of loaf sugar for ten minutes. Put in a pound of plums, and let them simmer until they are tender without being broken. Lift them out, place them on a compote dish, and pour the syrup over them. The amount of sugar used, and the length of time the fruit is boiled, must be regulated by the quality of the plums.
A simple sugar-syrup poaching of fruit, written for cooks who expected to judge the plums by eye. The only real decisions are syrup strength and heat.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pint of water is 10 fl oz in British Imperial measure, a little under 1¼ US cups; six to ten ounces of sugar is roughly ⅞ to 1½ cups. That range gives anything from a light to a fairly heavy syrup, which is the point — the recipe leaves the amount to be judged by the fruit, and sharper fruit will want the higher figure.
- Loaf sugarRefined sugar sold in hard cones or blocks, broken up and crushed before use. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct replacement, weight for weight.
- Boil the syrup firstThe ten-minute boil before the fruit goes in dissolves the sugar and drives off some water, so the plums go into a made syrup rather than into sweetened water. Fruit poached in a syrup rather than in water tends to hold its shape better.
- Keep it at a bare simmerAnything more than a lazy tremble will split the skins and turn the dish to stewed fruit. Poach uncovered so you can watch, and stop the moment a skewer meets no resistance.
- TimingRipe plums may be done in 5-8 minutes, firm or underripe ones in 15 or more. Halved and stoned fruit cooks faster than whole.
- Reducing the syrupIf the syrup seems thin after the plums come out — likely with juicy fruit — boil it down for a few minutes before pouring over. It should coat a spoon lightly, not set.
- Compote dishA footed glass or china bowl of the period. Any shallow serving bowl works; serve at room temperature or chilled, with cream or a plain sponge.
- YieldA pound of plums will serve roughly three as a dessert, depending on portion size; the recipe gives no yield.
Compote is simply the French for fruit cooked in syrup. The instruction to judge sugar and time by "the quality of the plums" reflects a period when cooks worked with whatever the garden or the market produced that week rather than a uniform commercial variety.