Stewed Guava
Peel and proceed as above, then cover with cold water or sweet milk and simmer gently until tender. At this stage add sugar, or sugar and spice to taste, and serve when cool.
A two-line recipe that assumes you have read the entry above it in the book, where the guavas are peeled, halved and the seedy pulp either left in or scooped out. Here is what it leaves unsaid.
- "Proceed as above""Proceed as above" points back to the preceding guava entry, which is not reproduced here; such entries generally cover peeling and halving, and leave the seedy pulp to the cook's discretion. Guava seeds are hard enough to be worth scooping out with a spoon.
- Add the sugar last, as writtenThis is the hinge of the recipe. Sugar added at the start draws water out of the fruit and firms the flesh, so the shells stay tough no matter how long they cook. Simmer in plain water or milk until a knife slides in, then sweeten.
- The milk optionGuava is acidic and will curdle milk if the pan gets above a bare simmer or if the fruit is very tart. Keep the heat low, use whole milk, and expect a soft set rather than a clear syrup. Water gives the cleaner result and is the safer choice for a first attempt.
- TimingRipe halves take roughly 15 to 25 minutes at a gentle simmer; underripe fruit can take twice that. Cook until translucent at the edges but still holding shape.
- How much sugar"To taste" here works out to about 1/2 to 3/4 cup per pound of prepared fruit, depending on ripeness. Dissolve it into the hot liquid and let the fruit sit in the syrup as it cools, which is when it takes on sweetness.
- SpiceSpice here would most likely mean a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves or a blade of mace, fished out before serving. Note that the recipe itself adds spice along with the sugar at the end; whole spices put in earlier with the water will have longer to give up their flavour.
- Yield and servingAbout 1 1/2 lb of guavas will serve roughly four. Serve cool, as instructed, with the syrup spooned over; mild white cheese is a common accompaniment to guava in the tropics.
Guava is native to tropical America and spread through the Caribbean, Florida, Hawaii and the Gulf coast, which is where American cookbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries began to meet it in quantity. Fruit-focused volumes of the period are marked by terse, formulaic entries that assume the reader has already learned the peeling method a paragraph earlier. Guava went into jelly, the fruit being famously high in pectin; stewing was the plainer domestic use for fruit that was too ripe or too plentiful to preserve. The instruction to simmer in sweet milk, meaning fresh unsoured milk rather than anything sweetened, reflects an older habit of cooking fruit into a soft milk compote that reads more like a nursery pudding than a dessert.