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Pickling (Flower water that they may not)
flower water, that they may not oil. When they are pounded fine add of a pound of finely powdered sugar to them and mix the whole in a stiff paste, which put into pods for use. It will keep six months; when wanted to be used take a piece bout the size of an egg and mix it with a pint of water and squeeze it through a napkin.
Pate de Guimauve.
Take of decoction of marshmallow roots 4 ounces; water 1 gallon. Boil down to 4 pints and strain; then add gum arabic 1/2 a pound, refined sugar 2 pounds. Evaporate to an extract; then take from the fire, stir it quickly with the whites of 12 eggs previously beaten to a froth; then add, while stirring, ½ ounce of orange-flower water. Another. Take of very white gum arabic and white sugar, each 24 pounds, with a sufficient quantity of boiling water. Dissolve, strain and evaporate without boiling to the consistency of honey; beat up the white of 6 eggs with 4 drachms of orange-flower water, which mix gradually with the paste, and evaporate over a slow fire, stirring it continually till it will not stick to the fingers, it should be very light, spongy and extremely white. Pate de Jujubes.
Take of raisins, stoned, 1 pound; currants, picked, jujubes, opened, each 4 ounces; water, a sufficient quantity. Boil, strain with expression, add sugar 2 pounds, gum arabic 2½ pounds, previously made into a mucilage with some water, and strain; evaporate gently, pour into moulds, finish by drying in a stove, and then divide it.
Three related confections from the pharmacy end of the confectioner's trade: a marshmallow paste in two versions and a jujube paste. The page opens mid-sentence, carried over from a preceding almond-paste receipt, so the first two lines belong to another formula entirely.
- The broken openingThe text beginning "flower water, that they may not oil" is the tail of an almond paste (an orgeat or pâte d'amandes) from the previous entry, in which blanched almonds are pounded with a little orange-flower water to stop the oil separating, then worked with sugar and later thinned with water for a drink. It is not part of the guimauve. Treat the recipe as starting at Pate de Guimauve.
- Scale the second guimauve downTwenty-four pounds each of gum arabic and sugar is a wholesale batch for a shop. The proportions are what matter: equal weights of gum and sugar, plus six egg whites per 48 lb of solids.
- Apothecary measuresA drachm is one-eighth of a fluid ounce, so 4 drachms of orange-flower water is about a tablespoon. Ounces in these formulas are weight for solids, fluid for liquids; "decoction of marshmallow roots 4 ounces" most likely means 4 oz of dried root by weight, boiled down in the gallon of water, though the line is ambiguous as printed.
- Gum arabicStill sold as acacia gum, in tears or as spray-dried powder. The powder dissolves in cold or warm water but does so slowly; allow several hours.
- Marshmallow rootAlthaea officinalis root, sold dried by herb suppliers. Its mucilage is what the sweet was originally for; it contributes almost no flavour, and in the second version it is left out altogether in favour of gum arabic alone.
- "Evaporate without boiling" is the hingeBoiling drives the gum to a tough, stringy mass and darkens the sugar, which defeats the whole point of a paste meant to be "extremely white." Hold the pan well below a simmer, over a diffuser or in a water bath, and expect it to take a long time.
- Adding the egg whitesBeat the whites to a firm froth. In the first version they go into the extract off the heat ('take from the fire'), stirred quickly; in the second they are mixed in gradually. The continued gentle cooking afterwards both dries and sets the whites.
- JujubesThe fruit of Ziziphus jujuba, sold dried in Chinese and Middle Eastern groceries. "Opened" means split and the stone removed. "Strain with expression" means press the boiled fruit through a cloth to get the pulp as well as the liquor.
- Drying in a stoveA drying cabinet, not an oven as we use the word. A modern equivalent is a dehydrator or an oven at its lowest setting with the door ajar, around 120-140F, for a day or more until the paste can be cut cleanly. Dust the moulds and the knife with cornflour or icing sugar.
- Yield and keepingStored airtight and away from damp the paste holds for months; humidity is the enemy, as the gum will go tacky.
Pâte de guimauve is the direct ancestor of the marshmallow, and its name is simply the French for marsh mallow, Althaea officinalis, whose mucilaginous root gave the paste its body before gum arabic and later gelatine took over the job. Both this and the pâte de jujubes reached confectioners' books by way of the apothecary: gum, mallow root and jujube fruit were all standard demulcents, prescribed as lozenges for coughs and sore throats, and the sugar was originally the vehicle rather than the point. That the second guimauve here dispenses with the mallow altogether while keeping the name shows how far the sweet had already drifted from the medicine. Mackenzie's placement of these among the confectionery is characteristic of the book, which moves without ceremony between the still-room, the shop counter and the dispensary, and quotes its quantities in pharmacists' drachms and shop-scale poundages on the same page.