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Arrow Root
oven. These are the dried "Italian Apricots" of the shops. Take soft, ripe Apricots, lay them in salt water (about two ounces of salt to a quart bottle) for a few hours; then spread them on a mat to dry in the sun. The next day press them between the hands to flatten, and to let the stones come out. Again the next day repeat the same process. At the Cape these generally dry, and become "Mebos," after three or four days in the sun; but if the weather should be damp they may be dried in heated rooms, or in a cool oven. To crystallize the "Mebos," lay them in lime water for five minutes till they feel nicely tender; then take them out, and wipe them with a soft cloth, and rub coarse crystallized sugar well into each fruit. One and a half pounds of the sugar will serve for one pound of Mebos. Next pack closely in jars, with plenty of sugar interposed, and cork well. A green Apricot tart is considered by many persons the best tart that is made; but a green Apricot pudding is still better, just as a cherry dumpling is superior to a cherry tart. As to the medicinal virtues which have been attributed to what old John Gerarde, Master in Chirurgeries, 1636, styled the abrecock tree, "the fruit thereof being taken after meat, do corrupt, and putrifie in the stomacke; oeing first eaten before meat they easily descend, and cause other meats to passe down the sooner; but the virtues of the leaves of this tree are not yet found out."
A Cape recipe for salted, sun-dried apricots, with an optional sugar-crystallising finish. The text as printed begins mid-sentence, and the closing lines about tarts and Gerarde are commentary rather than instruction.
- The brineTwo ounces of salt to a quart of water is roughly 50-60 g per litre depending on which quart is meant, a 5-6 per cent brine. It firms the flesh and discourages surface spoilage during the slow sun-drying; it is not a cure, and the fruit will taste faintly salty, which is the point of mebos.
- Sun-drying in practiceThis works only in hot, dry, breezy weather. Use raised screens rather than a solid mat so air reaches both faces, cover with netting against insects and birds, and bring the fruit in overnight so dew does not undo the day's work. Three or four days is realistic at the Cape; in a humid climate the fruit will ferment before it dries.
- "A cool oven"In period terms that is the falling heat of a cooling range, conventionally reckoned at something like 200-250F. A modern dehydrator at 135-140F, or an oven at its lowest setting with the door propped, does the same job in 12-24 hours depending on fruit size.
- Flattening and stoningThe daily pressing is what makes mebos mebos: the fruit is worked flat between the palms over two or three days as it softens and stiffens by turns, and the stone is squeezed out through the natural seam rather than cut for.
- Lime waterThis means a solution of slaked lime, sold now as food-grade pickling lime or cal, the same material used for nixtamalising corn. Builders' lime and quicklime are not interchangeable with it. Five minutes is a brief soak -- the recipe has the fruit left until it feels tender; rinse the fruit in clean water before wiping and sugaring rather than only wiping, as the recipe directs.
- The sugarA pound and a half of coarse crystallised sugar to a pound of fruit is the ratio for the crystallised version. Preserving sugar or a coarse raw sugar gives the right abrasive grain; caster sugar dissolves into a syrup instead of coating.
- StorageCorked jars packed with sugar are not sealed preserves. Keep them cool, dark and dry, check for weeping or mould in the first fortnight, and treat the plain salted mebos, which is drier, as the longer-keeping of the two.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. Apricots lose the great bulk of their weight in drying -- semi-dried mebos perhaps four parts fresh fruit to one, more if taken to full dryness -- and the crystallised weight will be higher again by however much of the sugar clings.
Mebos is a Cape Dutch sweetmeat, and the name is generally traced to Japanese umeboshi, the salted plum, carried westward through Dutch East India Company trade between Japan, Batavia and the Cape; salted and sun-dried apricots became the local version once the fruit took hold in the Western Cape. The closing quotation comes from John Gerarde's Herball, whose enlarged edition appeared in the 1630s, and preserves the older English name abrecock; his warning that apricots eaten after a meal "corrupt and putrifie in the stomacke" while the same fruit taken beforehand helps other food descend is standard humoral dietetics, and it explains why a book of Meals Medicinal files a fruit preserve under the doctor's kitchen at all.