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French Plums. Oranges
Apricots. Apples.
Cherries. Prepare the fruits carefully. The French plums should be stoned and stewed in claret, the apples turned into small even pieces and boiled tender in syrup, and the oranges and apricots divided into convenient pieces. When these are all ready set them with the Maraschino jelly in a fancy mould, and when cold turn out and serve.
This is a fruit macédoine set in liqueur jelly, written for a cook who already knows how to make a lemon or wine jelly and how to fill a mould. The original assumes that knowledge and gives no quantities, so the working decisions are left to you.
- French plums are prunes"French plums" means the large dried plums of south-west France, sold today as prunes. They need soaking before they will stone easily and stew well; a large softened prune yields two neat halves.
- ClaretClaret is simply dry red Bordeaux, or any dry, unoaked red. Stew the plums gently with the wine and a little sugar until plump, then drain and cool them completely — warm fruit will slacken the jelly around it.
- Maraschino jellyMaraschino here is the clear, dry cherry-kernel liqueur (the Luxardo style), not the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries. The jelly is a basic clear wine or lemon jelly with the liqueur stirred in off the heat, since heat drives off both the alcohol and the scent. Reckon roughly 1 oz (25 g) powdered gelatine to 2 pints (1.1 L) of liquid for a jelly firm enough to unmould.
- Boiled tender in syrupThe apples are cooked in a stock syrup — about equal weights of sugar and water — cut into even dice or small balls and simmered only until translucent and just yielding. Overcooked apple collapses into the jelly and clouds it.
- The orangesSegment them free of all pith and membrane, then leave the segments to drain on a cloth for an hour. Loose orange juice dilutes the jelly around the fruit and can stop it setting cleanly.
- Building the mouldThis is the hinge of the whole thing. Do not pour jelly over a mould full of loose fruit — it will float and shift. Set a thin layer of jelly in a chilled mould, arrange a layer of fruit on it, let that set, and repeat. Each layer wants 15–20 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Fresh pineapple, kiwi, papayaIf you substitute or add fruit, avoid these three raw: their enzymes digest gelatine and the mould will never set. Tinned pineapple has been heated and is safe.
- Turning outDip the mould to its rim in hot water for five seconds, no longer, then invert onto a wetted plate so the jelly can be slid into position. A 2-pint mould serves six to eight.
A macédoine -- the French term for a mixture of many small pieces, traditionally said to be named for Macedonia and its patchwork of peoples -- was one of the set pieces of the late-Victorian cold table, and this entry sits squarely in that tradition. Clear jellies became a domestic possibility rather than a confectioner's speciality as commercial gelatine displaced the laborious business of boiling down calves' feet or clarifying isinglass, and moulded jellies were valued as a test of neatness: the fruit had to be evenly cut, evenly spaced and suspended in liquid so clear that it read as glass. The choice of ingredients is telling about the period's larder -- dried French plums, imported oranges, claret and a Dalmatian liqueur all in one dish, none of them cheap, all of them shelf-stable enough for a well-stocked town household. Maraschino, distilled from marasca cherries and their kernels, was a fashionable flavouring for sweets in this era, long before its name was attached to the dyed cocktail cherry.