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Plums (He means those simple)
he means those simple uncombined purgatives which everybody can administer to themselves, such as stewed prunes, chewing a little rhubarb, or dissolving an ounce and a half of sweet manna in fair water, with the juice of a lemon to make it palatable." In common with Pine-apple juice, and that of figs, the pulp of Plums possesses a peptic ferment which will help the digestion of milk, cheese, and light meats, materially. This fruit is useful for costive habits if made into an electuary, or simple jam; but when unripe, Plums provoke choleraic diarrhea. The garden sorts contain less sugar than cherries, but a considerable amount of gelatinizing pectose. Lately the superintendent physician of a Reformatory at Chicago found that the boys behaved themselves much better when taking prunes in their diet than at any other time; these act, as he supposes, on certain organic parts which are the seats, and centres of the passions. "Little Jack Horner," says the familiar Nursery Rhyme, "sat in a corner, eating a Christmas pie: he put in his thumb, and he pulled out a Plum, and said 'What a good boy am I!'" 66 66 Inquit, et unum extrahens prunum, Horner, quam fueris nobile pueris Exemplar imitabile!"
Culpeper has said, "All Plumbs are under Venus, and are like women, some better, some worse." French Plums are conveyed to England in their dried state from Marseilles, the sweetness having been developed by drying. "Prune butter" may be made, without any sugar, by passing the stewed fruit through a colander so as to remove the skins. Prunes can be taken with benefit at breakfast for correcting a disposition to acid dyspepsia. They contain 2 per cent of proteid, 74 per cent of carbohydrates, 4 per cent of mineral salts, and 18 per cent of water. In cookery Prunes are stewed for a sauce, or otherwise prepared, being nutritious, demulcent, and in a measure laxative. For drying them, at first the fruit is dipped into hot liquid so as to crack their sides, and then dipped into cold water, being left on trays when taken out, so as to mature in the sun for four, or five days; they are finally picked according to size. A Prune Mould, excellent against habitual constipation, and beneficial for weakly invalids, is to be made thus: "Put half a pound of Prunes in a stewpan, with a pint of water, and six ounces of sugar; stew slowly until tender; pass through a fine sieve, 66 keeping back the stones; add gelatine (one ounce dissolved in half a pint of water); mix thoroughly, and boil for ten minutes; put into a border mould in a cool place until set, and turn out (with whipped cream in the middle if the same is approved of for the patient)." The Damask Prune" (Castle of Health) "rather bindeth than lowseth, and is more commodious unto the stomacke." Long ago Andrew Borde (1562) has declared that "Syxe, or sewen Damysens eaten before dyner be good to prouoke a manne's appetyde." For costive persons Prunes may be taken stewed with meat. Dr. Johnson was particularly fond of veal pie with stewed Plums. Plum pudding, so called, our national accompaniment to the Roast Beef of old England, is made rather of raisins, which are dried grapes, than of Plums. In the Western counties it goes by the name of figgy pudding. "Now awl tha vokes be agon tü races, us'll ave a frawsy awl tü ourzels! whot shall us 'ave?" "Aw, let's av a fowel, an' a figgy pudden." Plum pudding is safe food for all except the very weakest of stomachs; the long process of boiling helps to make its ingredients digestible, whilst of themselves they are certainly not unwholesome. None the less, it should always be borne in mind that the questionableness of this good cheer lies more in quantity than in quality. Made almost sacred is the sweet Plum, or Prune, by the Poet Cowper in his tender, and touching "Lines to my Mother's Picture," bearing reference to the loving home-days of his fostered childhood :-- "The record fair That mem'ry keeps of all thy kindness there :
Thy nightly visits to my chamber made That thou might'st know me safe, and warmly laid :
Thy morning bounties ere I left my home, The biscuit, or Confectionery Plum; The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestow'd By thy own hand, till fresh they shone, and glow'd." "Think what London would be," wrote Horace Walpole (1743) to a namesake, "if the chief houses were in it as in the cities in other countries, and not disposed like great rarity Plums in a vast pudding of country! Well! it is a tolerable place as it is. Were I a physician I would prescribe nothing but 'Recipe: Londin, ccclxv drachmas.' Would you know why I like London so much? Why, if the world must consist of so many fools as it does, I choose to take them in the gross, and not made into separate pills, as they are prepared in the country." "If pills were pleasant," says an old adage, "they would need no gilding." Dr. Johnson likewise was an ardent lover of London.
PORK. (See BACON).
Buried in the middle of this rambling entry is a workable dish: the Prune Mould, a sieved prune puree set with gelatine in a ring mould. The rest of the page is commentary, quotation and Edwardian medical opinion.
- The measurementsHalf a pound of prunes is about 225 g, a pint is an imperial 20 fl oz (2.5 US cups), and six ounces of sugar is roughly 3/4 to 1 cup. That much sugar is a period sweetness; half is enough for most palates.
- The gelatine is the hingeAn ounce of leaf or powdered gelatine (about 28 g, roughly four envelopes) is a firm Victorian set, and boiling it for ten minutes as directed actually weakens its setting power. Soften the gelatine in the cold half-pint, stir it into the hot puree off the heat until dissolved, and skip the boil.
- SievingPassing the stewed fruit through a fine sieve removes skins as well as stones and is what gives the mould its smoothness. A food mill or a coarse sieve followed by a blender does the same work in a fraction of the time; a blender alone leaves flecks of skin.
- The border mouldA border mould is a ring mould, the hollow centre intended for the whipped cream. Rinse it with cold water before filling and it will turn out cleanly; any 1-litre ring or loaf tin will serve.
- Setting time"A cool place until set" meant a larder. Allow at least four hours in the refrigerator, or overnight for a clean unmoulding.
- YieldAbout 1 litre of mixture, serving four to six as a dessert.
- Prune butterThe sugarless version mentioned earlier is simply stewed prunes pushed through a colander. It keeps only a few days refrigerated, as there is no sugar or acid to preserve it.
- Ignore the medicineThe surrounding text prescribes chewing a little rhubarb, dosing with manna, and treats prunes as a corrective for the "passions" of reformatory boys. These are Edwardian therapeutic claims, not instructions to follow. Unripe plums, as the text notes, can cause digestive upset.
This comes from W. T. Fernie's Meals Medicinal (1905), one of a run of books by a physician-author who believed every item in the larder had a therapeutic office, and who padded each entry with poetry, nursery rhyme, dialect anecdote and Latin tags. The prune's reputation as a laxative was already ancient by then, and Fernie's chain of authorities -- the Castle of Health (Sir Thomas Elyot), Andrew Boorde, Culpeper's assignment of plums to Venus -- shows how directly Edwardian dietetics still leaned on Tudor humoral writing. Dried "French Plums" were, as Fernie says, shipped to England from Marseilles, though he does not say which varieties. His note that plum pulp carries a "peptic ferment" reflects period thinking; what plums are notable for is pectin, which thickens the puree. His aside that plum pudding contains raisins rather than plums is correct -- "plum" long meant dried fruit, raisins especially -- and the West Country name figgy pudding works the same way.