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Guava Paste
This is a heavy, pasty jelly much esteemed as a delicacy. Use for the unripe fruit three-fourths its weight in sugar. Cook the sugar in a separate vessel with water equal in quantity to the sugar, reducing to a heavy syrup. In another vessel cook the sliced, unpeeled ripe guavas with a little water till quite soft, then strain through coarse sieve and cook again slowly in double-boiler. When the mass is a thick paste add the boiling syrup to it and cook until it begins to candy when dropped in iced water. Line tin boxes with white or oiled paper and fill with the paste. Serve for breakfast or for dessert, in latter case with accompaniment of Edam or fresh cream cheese.
A guava paste stiff enough to slice, in the manner of quince cheese or Brazilian goiabada. The recipe is compressed and slightly self-contradictory, so read all of it before starting.
- Ripe or unripeThe text opens by giving a sugar ratio for unripe fruit, then instructs you to cook ripe guavas. Underripe guavas carry more pectin and acid and set harder; fully ripe ones give better flavour. The three-fourths ratio is stated here for the unripe fruit; using a mix of ripe and underripe is one way to reconcile the two instructions.
- The syrupEqual weights of sugar and water "reduced to a heavy syrup" means boiling well past dissolution, into roughly the thread range; the recipe itself gives no temperature. It is added boiling so the fruit pulp does not drop in temperature.
- The candy test"Begins to candy when dropped in iced water" points to roughly the firm-ball range, though the recipe gives no temperature. A spoonful dropped into ice water should form a ball that holds its shape and does not flatten; much softer than that and the paste will be hard to slice.
- Skip the double boiler at the endA double boiler cannot exceed 212F, so it is fine for the initial thickening but useless for the final stage. Once the syrup goes in, move to a heavy wide pan over direct heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula — the paste spits and scorches readily.
- Seeds and sieveGuava seeds are hard as gravel and must not go into the paste. "Coarse sieve" here means coarse enough to pass thick pulp but fine enough to hold seeds back; a food mill fitted with its medium plate does the job in one pass.
- The mouldTin boxes lined with oiled paper translate to a parchment-lined loaf tin or shallow tray. Pour the paste about an inch deep, leave uncovered at room temperature for a day or two to form a dry skin, then wrap and store.
- Yield and keepingKeeping -- At this sugar concentration the paste keeps for months wrapped in parchment in a cool cupboard; refrigeration tends to make it sweat. The recipe gives no quantities, so scale to the fruit you have at three-fourths its weight in sugar.
- The cheeseEdam or fresh cheese alongside is not a garnish but the point of the dish — salt and fat against a very sweet, dense paste. Cream cheese, queso fresco or a young Manchego all serve.
Guava paste is the tropical American member of a family of fruit cheeses that includes Spanish membrillo and English quince cheese: fruit pulp boiled with sugar until it will set firm enough to cut with a knife. Psidium guajava is native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and the paste — goiabada in Brazil, pasta de guayaba in Cuba and Puerto Rico — became one of the region's great preserved exports, often shipped in paper-lined tin boxes of the kind this recipe describes. The pairing with cheese is old and near-universal wherever the paste is made; in Brazil the combination of goiabada with fresh queijo minas is known as Romeu e Julieta.