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Prune Recipes
PRUNE SOUP No. I Soak one pound of prunes in one quart of cold water, first washing well. In the morning place on the back of the stove with an additional generous pint of water, letting come slowly to the simmering point. Add a little cinnamon and lemon peel and two tablespoons sago or tapioca, letting barely simmer until prunes are tender and the sago or tapioca clear, when stir in one-half cup of claret; let boil up, then remove immediately and serve.
PRUNE SOUP No. 2 Use one-third prunes and two-thirds peaches, fresh or dried, if the latter, soak, simmer, and mash to a pulp through a sieve. Dilute with boiling water; two pints to each pint of fruit and thicken with a dessertspoon of cornstarch.
Two versions of a Central European–style cold-weather fruit soup, written for a coal range where a pot could sit at the cool end for hours. Both work on a modern hob at the lowest setting, or in a low oven.
- "Back of the stove"On a wood or coal range this was the coolest zone, holding food just under a simmer. Use your smallest burner at its lowest setting, or an oven at its lowest setting with the lid ajar. The point is that the fruit should never boil hard, which breaks it up and clouds the soup.
- Prunes and their pitsPrunes of this period were often sold with the stones in. If yours have pits, fish them out once the fruit softens, before adding the sago. Pitted prunes work identically and save the step.
- Sago and tapiocaBoth are small starch pearls; pearl tapioca is the easy modern substitute and behaves the same way. Two tablespoons of pearls in roughly three pints of liquid gives a lightly bodied soup, not a pudding. They are done when each pearl is translucent through to the centre, with no white dot.
- ClaretNineteenth-century American usage for red Bordeaux, or anything sold in that style. Any dry, moderately tannic red works. Removing it from the heat as soon as it boils up preserves the wine's aroma, which prolonged boiling drives off.
- DessertspoonBetween a teaspoon and a tablespoon, about two teaspoons or 10 ml. For No. 2, slake the cornstarch in a little cold water before stirring it into the hot fruit purée, or it will lump.
- SweeteningNeither recipe calls for sugar, which tells you the author expected the prunes to carry it. Taste at the end; older dried fruit and tart dried peaches may want two or three tablespoons of sugar stirred in off the heat.
- Cinnamon and lemon peelA stick of cinnamon and a wide strip of peel, pared without the white pith, are easier to remove than ground spice and give a cleaner flavour. Take both out before serving.
- Yield and servingNo. 1 makes about six cups, enough for four to six as a first course or a light dessert. Fruit soups of this kind are served hot in winter and chilled in summer, often with a spoonful of sour cream or a dry biscuit.
Sweet fruit soups thickened with sago or tapioca came into American cookbooks largely through German, Scandinavian and Central European kitchens, where Pflaumensuppe and its relatives were everyday food rather than a novelty — served hot as a course at dinner, or cold in warm weather. The claret in No. 1 marks it as the dressier of the pair; the second version, stretching the prunes with peaches and cornstarch, is the household economy version of the same idea.