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Red Sago
Take some juice drawn from currants or raspberries, or both mixed, or strawberries and currants are equally suitable. Measure the juice, and allow two ounces of sago to the pint, then put the two together, and cook until the sago is done; add a little sugar. When it is ready, pour it into a damp mould, and turn out when set. Serve with cream or custard.
A fruit-juice sago mould, thickened only by the starch of the grain and set cold. The whole thing rests on cooking the sago long enough that it turns clear, and on getting the juice-to-sago ratio right.
- The hinge: cook until translucentSago is done when the grains lose their white opaque centres and go glassy; undercooked sago stays chalky and gritty in the set mould. Expect 20-30 minutes of gentle simmering with frequent stirring, as the starch catches easily once the mixture thickens.
- Two ounces to the pintThat is about 1/3 cup of pearl sago to 20 fl oz (2 1/2 US cups) of juice, since the book is using an imperial pint. Scaled to a US pint of 16 fl oz, use a generous 1 1/2 oz, roughly 1/4 cup.
- Which sagoUse small pearl sago from the palm, sold in Asian and South Asian groceries; the fine or seed sizes set most smoothly. Small pearl tapioca substitutes almost exactly, though it sets slightly more elastic.
- Getting the juiceCrush the fruit, warm it briefly to release the juice, and strain through a jelly bag or fine sieve without forcing, or the mould will be cloudy. Frozen fruit works well here as freezing ruptures the cells. About 2 lb of currants or raspberries gives roughly a pint of juice.
- Sugar"A little" assumes ripe fruit. Red and blackcurrant juice will need 3-4 oz per pint; raspberry or strawberry rather less. Add it after the sago is clear, as sugar early on slows the grains from softening.
- The mouldRinse the mould in cold water and leave it wet, which is what "damp" means: the film of water lets the set mixture slip out. Chill at least 4 hours, or overnight for a 1-pint mould, and loosen the edge with a fingertip before turning out.
- Yield and servingA pint of juice makes about four servings. Pouring cream, thin custard, or crème anglaise is the traditional accompaniment; the mould itself is quite tart and firm-textured on its own.
Sago, the starch extracted from the pith of tropical palms, reached British kitchens in quantity through the East India trade and by the nineteenth century was cheap enough to be classed with rice and tapioca as a nursery and invalid food. Fruit-and-starch moulds of this kind were common across Northern Europe -- the Danish rødgrød and German rote Grütze are close relatives, though those are usually thickened with semolina, potato starch or sago. The name here simply describes the result: sago boiled in red juice takes on the colour throughout, the pearls turning from white to translucent ruby as they cook.