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Mixed Fruit Dessert
1 cup stoned and quartered California grapes (or stoned cherries may be used) 1 cup diced apple 1 cup diced pineapple 1/2 cup diced flgs 1/2 cup pineapple juice or strawberry juice 1/4 cup lemon juice Either canned or fresh pineapple may be used. The pineapple or strawberry juice may be that which is drained from canned fruit. The apples should be mixed with the lemon juice as soon as they are cut into dice, to preserve their white colour. Carefully mix with them the other ingredients, and place the mixture in the refrigerator for two hours to allow the flavors to blend. At serving time put the fruit into chilled sherbet glasses, and place on top of each a spoonful of whipped cream which has been slightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla. Or the cream may be piped in the shape of a rosette with a pastry tube.
A cold fruit compote from the era when a "dessert" could simply be good fruit in a stemmed glass. Nothing here is difficult; the details worth knowing are about the fruit itself.
- Stoned grapes"Stoned" means seeded. Seeded table grapes were common in this period and needed halving or quartering and picking out; modern seedless grapes can simply be halved, or left whole if small.
- FigsFresh figs give a soft, jammy dice; dried figs are firmer and much sweeter, and want a brief soak in warm water or in the fruit juice before dicing. The recipe works with either, but they are not interchangeable in sweetness.
- The lemon juice is the hingeToss the apple dice in the lemon juice the instant they are cut, as the recipe directs, not after the other fruit is prepared. A quarter cup for a cup of apple is generous, and that acidity carries through the finished dish.
- Fresh vs. canned pineappleCanned pineapple is sweeter and softer and contributes its own syrup, which is what the recipe means by juice drained from canned fruit. Fresh pineapple is more acidic and firmer.
- SweeteningNo sugar is added to the fruit; what sweetness there is comes from the fruit and juice themselves and from the sweetened cream. With fresh, tart fruit you may want a tablespoon of sugar stirred in before chilling.
- The two hoursThe rest lets the juices and the fruit's own liquid mingle, which is what the recipe means by allowing the flavours to blend.
- Sherbet glassesPeriod sherbet or champagne coupes hold roughly 5 to 6 ounces. The quantities here fill four to six of them, or serve four in ordinary dessert bowls.
- The creamWhip to soft-to-medium peaks if spooning, stiffer if piping a rosette. Add it at the last moment; sweetened cream sitting on acidic fruit will begin to weep if it stands.