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Green Gage Meringue in Halves of Cantaloupes
12 ripe green gages 1 tablespoon powdered sugar 2 egg whites, beaten stiff Few grains of salt a little grated nutmeg 1 cup cream, whipped Cantaloupes candied cherries Peel and remove the pits from the green gages, and mash the fruit, adding the powdered sugar. Allow them to stand on ice until thoroughly chilled, and after draining, fold in the stiffly whipped whites of eggs. Add salt, nutmeg, and a cup of cream. Heap the meringue in small mounds in 1/2 cantaloupes that have been on ice at least 24 hours, and serve immediately, ornamenting each portion with a few crystallized cherries. Serves six.
Cream Puffs 1/2 cup shortening 1 cup boiling water 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup flour 4 eggs Add the salt and shortening to the water. When boiling add the flour all at once, stirring constantly until the mixture leaves the side of the pan. Remove from the fire and add the unbeaten eggs, one at a time, beating continually. Drop by spoonfuls on to a slightly greased pan which has been lightly dusted with flour, about 2 inches apart. Bake in a hot oven 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to moderate oven for remaining 30 minutes. Upon removing from oven pierce with sharp knife to let out steam. When baked fill. This will make 20, dropped from tablespoon, or many more dropped from a teaspoon.
A cold fruit fool served in melon halves, from the era when uncooked egg white was the standard lightener for anything that was not to be baked. The page also carries a cream puff formula, which stands on its own.
- Why it fails todayThe beaten whites are folded in raw and the dessert is never heated at any stage; it is then held on ice and served as is. Raw shell egg carries a Salmonella risk that chilling does nothing to reduce, and a heaped meringue sitting on cut melon at the table is a warm-enough, moist-enough medium to make matters worse. Use a current recipe if you want this dish.
- The melon compounds itCut cantaloupe is a recognised vehicle for Salmonella and Listeria, carried in on the netted rind and transferred to the flesh by the knife. The instruction to hold whole melons on ice for a full day and then serve a soft, uncooked filling in them stacks two hazards in one bowl.
- Green gagesGreengages are a small, firm, honey-sweet green plum, ripe when they yield slightly and the skin dulls. Twelve of them will give perhaps a cup or so of pulp, depending on size. Damsons and most other plums will be sharper in flavour.
- Powdered sugarIn books of this vintage powdered sugar usually means finely ground granulated, closer to today's caster or superfine sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold under that name now.
- Cream puffs: ovenIn books of this period a "hot oven" is usually taken as roughly 425-450F and a "moderate" oven about 350-375F. The recipe drops from one to the other after 15 minutes, and the puffs should not be opened before the structure sets.
- Cream puffs: shortening and yieldHalf a cup of shortening is about 4 oz; butter works and gives better flavour. Four eggs to a cup of flour is the standard proportion for pâte à choux, and the steam in that wet batter is what gives the hollow centre. Twenty puffs from a tablespoon, as stated.
The greengage is a plum of the Reine Claude group, named in English after Sir William Gage, who is traditionally credited with introducing it to England in the early eighteenth century; the French name honours Claude, queen of François I. It has always been a short-season fruit, which is part of why it turns up in menu books as a summer showpiece rather than a staple. Serving a cold cream in a chilled melon shell is the sort of hotel-dining-room flourish these menu collections favour: the food is simple, but the presentation, ice-chilled and finished with crystallized cherries, is meant to look expensive.