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Fruit Butter
Chop together equal parts of stoned raisins, dates, and figs and add (after weighing) nuts equal in weight to the whole. The nuts may be mixed according to convenience Mix or taste, as one part each of black and white walnuts, pecans, almonds, peanuts, hazel or Brazil nuts. thoroughly together and pack in a mould for slicing.
A no-cook confection despite the name — nothing is cooked, churned or spread. The printed text has been scrambled by the typesetter; read it as "the nuts may be mixed according to convenience or taste, as one part each of black and white walnuts, pecans, almonds, peanuts, hazel or Brazil nuts. Mix thoroughly together and pack in a mould for slicing."
- The ratio is the whole recipeEqual parts of raisins, dates and figs, then an equal total weight of nuts (the recipe explicitly calls for weighing at that stage). A workable batch: 5 oz each of the three fruits (15 oz total) and 15 oz nuts. The sticky fruit pulp is the only thing holding it together, so weighing rather than eyeballing matters.
- Stoned raisinsRaisins were sold with seeds in until the seedless Thompson came to dominate; "stoned" simply means the seeds have been removed. Any modern seedless raisin is already there. Check dates for pits and snip the hard stem nubs off the figs.
- White and black walnuts"White walnut" is butternut, Juglans cinerea, now scarce because of canker disease; black walnut is the strong, musky American species, not the mild English walnut in most supermarkets. English walnuts substitute for either without harm, though the result is less assertive.
- Chop, or use a processorA food processor does in a minute what the original expected of a chopping bowl and blade. Pulse the fruit first to a coarse paste, then add the nuts and pulse only until they are gravelly — run it too long and the nut oil turns the mixture greasy and dark.
- The mouldLine a small loaf pan or a tin can with parchment, pack the mixture down hard with the back of a spoon to drive out air pockets, and chill several hours before turning out. Air pockets are what makes the slices crumble.
- Keeping and servingWrapped tightly it should keep two to three weeks refrigerated, and it freezes well. Slice thin with a wet knife; the quantity above will give something in the region of 30 thin slices. It is rich enough to serve as a sweetmeat rather than a spread.
- PeanutsListed here on equal terms with pecans and Brazils. They are soft and mild; if you use them, keep them to a minority of the mix or the texture goes pasty.
"Fruit butter" in nineteenth-century American cookery usually meant apples or peaches cooked down for hours to a dark, spreadable paste — this recipe borrows the name for something quite different, an uncooked fruit-and-nut paste. Books of the health-reform movement, particularly those coming out of the Battle Creek orbit, promoted nuts as a substitute for animal fat, and it is tempting, though not demonstrable from the recipe itself, to read this one against that background. The inclusion of butternut and black walnut alongside Brazils and peanuts is at most a hint of American origin: two native trees, two imports, and the peanut, then still climbing from fairground snack to respectable pantry item.