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Stewed Prunes
Wash the prunes and soak for five hours or more in cold water. Put into a saucepan with sufficient water to cover, and simmer gently for twenty minutes. Add sugar to sweeten to taste, and continue to simmer until tender. Serve cold.
A plain fruit compote of the sort that appeared at breakfast and in sickroom cookery. The method still works, with a few adjustments for the prunes sold today.
- Modern prunes need far less soakingEarly-1900s dried prunes were hard and leathery; today's are partially rehydrated and sold moist in sealed packs. An hour of soaking is ample, and pitted prunes can go straight into the pan.
- Sugar goes in late for a reasonAdding sugar before the fruit has softened firms the skins and slows the water from getting in. The instruction to sweeten after the first twenty minutes is worth following.
- Total cooking timeExpect 25 to 35 minutes altogether for unsoaked dried prunes; soaked prunes, as here, need the twenty minutes given plus a further spell after the sugar goes in. They are done when a prune yields completely to the back of a spoon.
- Keep the simmer bareA rolling boil bursts the skins and clouds the syrup. Hold it at a lazy bubble, uncovered, so the liquid reduces to a light syrup rather than staying watery.
- Use the soaking waterSome of the fruit's sugar dissolves into the water during soaking. Cook the prunes in that liquid instead of draining it and starting fresh.
- SweeteningTwo to four tablespoons of sugar per pound of prunes suits most palates; the fruit is already very sweet. A strip of lemon peel or a piece of cinnamon stick added with the sugar appears in some period recipes and keeps the dish from cloying.
- Yield and servingA pound of prunes gives six to eight servings. Served cold with the syrup, plain or with cream, yoghurt, or alongside a baked custard.