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Pomelo Syrup
This may be made from the pulp of the fruit alone or with the rind, using about one quart of water to each quart of sliced fruit (rind and all). If the rind is used the syrup will be bitter but will thus contain more of the tonic quality. The fruit must be simmered and strained, after adding sugar (about one pint to each quart of liquid). This may be used with shaved ice for summer drinks or with gelatine, etc.
A loose formula rather than a fixed recipe: equal volumes of sliced fruit and water, simmered, strained, then sweetened at roughly half a volume of sugar to the liquid. The main decisions left to you are whether to include the rind and how long to reduce.
- "Pomelo" means grapefruit"Pomelo" here almost certainly means grapefruit -- in American cookbooks of this period "pomelo" and "grape-fruit" were both used for what we now call grapefruit. The true pomelo of Southeast Asia, now sold under that name, is milder and thicker-pithed; it will work, but expect less acidity and a paler syrup.
- The measurements are by volume, not weightA quart of sliced fruit means loosely packed slices filling a 4-cup measure — roughly one to one and a half large grapefruit. A quart of water is 4 cups; a pint of sugar is 2 cups, which by weight is about 14 oz.
- Rind or no rind is the real choiceThe bitterness the author attributes to "tonic quality" is naringin, concentrated in the white pith and peel. Whole sliced fruit gives a bracing, quinine-like syrup; pulp and juice alone give something close to a plain grapefruit cordial. Splitting the batch is worth doing once to see which you prefer.
- Simmer time is unstatedTwenty to thirty minutes at a bare simmer is enough to soften the slices and pull out flavour. Hard boiling before straining pushes more bitterness out of the pith and can turn the fruit muddy.
- Add the sugar to the strained liquidThe wording is ambiguous, but sugar dissolved into the measured liquid after straining is easier to get right — you cannot measure a quart of liquid until you have strained it. Simmer only until the sugar is fully dissolved, or a few minutes longer if you want it thicker.
- Strain twice for a clear syrupA coarse strainer first to remove slices, then a jelly bag or a double layer of muslin. Do not squeeze the bag if you want the syrup clear for drinks.
- This is not a preserveAt two cups of sugar to a quart of liquid the sugar concentration is far too low to keep at room temperature. Refrigerate and use within a week or two, or freeze in portions.
- Yield and useYield will vary with how hard you simmer; expect somewhere around a quart, possibly a little more once the sugar is dissolved. Figure 1 to 2 tablespoons per glass over shaved ice with soda or still water; for the gelatine dessert, use it in place of the water and sugar in any plain fruit-jelly recipe, following the package ratio for your gelatine.
- One modern caveatGrapefruit interferes with the metabolism of a long list of prescription drugs, statins among them. The book's "tonic quality" framing predates that knowledge by decades.
This comes from a moment when grapefruit was still a novelty in American kitchens and had not settled on a name — it was often marketed and written about as "pomelo," and cookbooks of the period hedge with both words. Its reputation then was as much medicinal as culinary: the bitterness was read as evidence of a tonic, digestive, appetite-sharpening virtue, which is why the author notes that the bitter rind version contains more of that tonic quality rather than treating it as a fault to be strained out. Fruit syrups like this one filled a practical gap in the era before commercial soft drinks were widely available at home — a household kept a jar in the icebox and built cold summer drinks, gelatine desserts and sauces from it. The instruction to serve it "with shaved ice" suggests a kitchen where ice was still bought as a block and shaved or chipped as needed.