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Salpicon of Fruit
This is served in glass punch or custard cups. In the bottom of each put a slice of orange, on this lay one-half of a fine white peach (if brandied, all the better); the top layer should be of Maraschino cherries and the cups filled two-thirds full of a mixture of liquid from the cherries and a small quantity of orange juice; if this is not sufficient add a little strained liquor from the can of peaches. Set the cups, covered, in a shallow pan of cracked ice and a sprinkling of salt, till needed.
An assembled fruit cup rather than a cooked dish, so the work is all in the choosing and the chilling. A few of the ingredients are period shorthand for canned goods.
- "Fine white peach"The recipe assumes canned white peach halves in syrup, which is why it later refers to "liquor from the can." Ripe fresh white peaches, peeled and halved, work as well but bring no syrup with them, so you will need a little more juice to fill the cups.
- Brandied peachesThese were a standard preserve of the period, peaches put up in syrup with brandy. Jarred brandied peaches are still sold; otherwise a teaspoon of brandy stirred into the syrup gives the intended effect.
- Maraschino cherriesAt this period the name could still mean marasca cherries preserved in maraschino liqueur, sharp and faintly bitter, though cheaper imitations were already common. Modern bright red cocktail cherries are sweetened and dyed, and their syrup is far cloyer. Luxardo-style cherries in liqueur are the closer match, and their syrup carries the dish.
- The liquidFill two-thirds full, as directed, and no more. Cherry syrup dominates quickly; add orange juice until the mixture tastes tart rather than candied, then top up with peach syrup only if short.
- Ice and saltCracked ice with salt scattered over it drops below freezing point, a standard way of chilling hard and fast before mechanical refrigeration. Half an hour in the refrigerator is a reasonable substitute, though not as cold; keep the cups covered either way, as the recipe directs.
- YieldAs written, one peach half per cup. Figure one large can of peaches, one small jar of cherries and two oranges for six cups.
- ServingServe straight from the glass with a small spoon, cold enough to fog the sides. Keep the portions modest.
Salpicon is a French kitchen term for ingredients cut small and bound in a sauce, usually savoury and usually destined for croquettes or vol-au-vents; borrowing it for a glass of fruit in syrup is the sort of genteel French labelling American cookbooks of the period applied freely to simple dishes. The recipe depends on canned and preserved fruit -- peaches in syrup, cherries in liqueur, oranges -- for a dessert that requires no cooking, no gelatine and no skill beyond layering. The salt-and-cracked-ice bath in a shallow pan points to a kitchen chilling with bought ice rather than with mechanical refrigeration.