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Stewed Bananas
Peel six bananas which are not too ripe; cut in half crosswise and place in a saucepan with three-fourths pint of claret, two tablespoons of sugar, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Simmer for half an hour, then set off to cool; place on ice and serve with whipped cream. Apples or other fruit may be added.
A wine-poached fruit compote from the era when bananas were still a novelty worth a chapter of their own. Two things need attention: the choice of fruit and the length of the simmer.
- Underripe means underripeThe instruction "not too ripe" is the hinge of the dish. Bananas at the yellow-with-green-tips stage hold their shape and have enough starch to resist the wine; a spotted banana will collapse into sweet mush within ten minutes.
- Half an hour is too longEven firm bananas are soft in 8 to 12 minutes at a bare simmer. Poach until a knife tip slides in with slight resistance, then lift the fruit out and reduce the syrup separately if it seems thin.
- Three-fourths pintThat is 1 1/2 cups in US measure, 15 fl oz if the book is working in imperial pints. Either is enough to half-cover six halved bananas in a wide pan; turn them once rather than adding more wine.
- ClaretNineteenth and early twentieth century English and American usage for red Bordeaux, and by extension any dry red in that style. A Merlot or Cabernet blend works; avoid anything heavily oaked or high in tannin, which turns bitter as it reduces.
- Pan and heatUse a wide non-reactive pan — stainless or enamelled. Bare aluminium or unlined copper will react with the wine and lemon juice and dull the colour.
- SugarTwo tablespoons is restrained by period standards and assumes the fruit brings its own sweetness. Taste the syrup after reducing; more sugar can go in at that point.
- "Place on ice"Simply means chill thoroughly. Refrigerate the fruit in its syrup for at least two hours; the flavour and the wine colour both deepen as it sits.
- Added fruitApples need a head start — give firm slices five minutes in the wine before the bananas go in, or they will still be raw when the bananas are done.
- YieldSix bananas serve four to six as a dessert, with a spoonful of the syrup and unsweetened whipped cream.
Bananas reached ordinary American and British tables only in the last decades of the nineteenth century, once fast steamships and rail connections made it possible to land Caribbean and Central American fruit in edible condition. Cookbooks of the period often gave the fruit instructions of its own: it was familiar enough to buy and unfamiliar enough to need them. Some writers treated it as they treated any other fruit — baked, fried, stewed in wine — and stewing in claret with sugar and lemon follows the standard treatment for pears and apples. The whipped cream and the chilling suggest a dessert intended for a formal table rather than a nursery.