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Grapefruit Cocktail
4 grapefruits 6 after dinner mints or mint jelly springs of mint Cut grapefruit in halves. Run knife along each section, and around outer skin. Remove pulp carefully and ice. Remove all fibre from shell. The edge of shell may be scalloped, if desired, then put into ice water to keep firm. When ready to serve, return pulp to drained and dried shells, place a mint or spoonful of jelly in the center and garnish with fresh mint. Serves 6.
A first-course fruit cup dressed up in its own shell, from the era when a chilled grapefruit half opened the meal. Nothing here is cooked, so the work is all in the knife and the chilling.
- "Ice" means chillThe instruction to "ice" the pulp means refrigerate it thoroughly, not freeze it or add ice cubes. An hour in a covered bowl in the fridge is enough; the shells go into ice water separately so they stay rigid.
- After-dinner mintsIn this period the term covered small fondant or cream mints as well as thin chocolate-coated mint wafers; either would soften against the cold fruit, whereas a modern hard peppermint candy will not. Mint jelly is the safer of the two options the recipe gives.
- Sectioning techniqueCut the fruit through its equator, then run a thin flexible knife down both sides of every membrane wall and once around the inside of the peel. A curved grapefruit knife or a serrated paring knife does this far more cleanly than a straight blade.
- Clearing the shellAfter the pulp is out, pull away the central core and all the white membrane with your fingers or a spoon. Any fibre left behind will end up in the served dish, and it is the one thing that makes this look homemade rather than composed.
- Scalloping the rimCut small shallow V notches or half-moons around the cut edge with kitchen scissors or a paring knife. Do it before the ice-water soak, and keep the notches shallow so the rim does not tear when the shell is filled.
- Dry the shellsDrain the shells upside down and blot them inside and out. Water left in the shell dilutes the juice that has collected with the pulp and makes the finished cup watery.
- SweeteningThe recipe adds no sugar. Grapefruit varieties on sale today are often sweeter than older ones, so taste the pulp before assembling; a teaspoon of sugar or a little honey stirred through will not be out of place if the fruit is very tart.
- YieldFour grapefruits give eight halves, so the stated six servings leaves two shells and their pulp spare. Either buy three fruits for six people, or fill all eight and count on the extra.
Grapefruit reached American tables in quantity only after Florida groves expanded in the late nineteenth century, and by the 1920s and 1930s a chilled half grapefruit was standard hotel and club breakfast and dinner fare. The "cocktail" label for a first course of fruit, oysters or shrimp was already in use before Prohibition, though it became still more common in these decades, when a formal opening course was expected. The scalloped shell and the sprig of mint are presentation of that kind, meant to tell the reader what the dish should look like on the table as much as how to make it.