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Sweet Pickled Prunes
4 lbs. prunes 2 lbs. sugar 2 cups vinegar 1/2 oz. cloves, whole 1 stick cinnamon 1/2 oz. whole ginger Wash prunes well, soak in cold water 24 hours. Bring to boil in same water. Boil together the sugar, vinegar and spices 10 minutes; add the prunes drained from the water, and simmer gently until tender. When cold put in jars and seal.
A sweet-sour spiced fruit pickle of the sort kept for unexpected guests. The whole job hinges on keeping the prunes intact: they should be tender but still whole, so the syrup must never do more than tremble once the fruit goes in.
- PrunesThese are dried plums, sold whole and usually pitted today. Four pounds is a large batch; unpitted prunes may hold their shape better through the long soak and simmer, but warn anyone eating them.
- The 24-hour soakSoak in the refrigerator, not on the counter, and keep the soaking water — the recipe brings the fruit to a boil in it before draining. Prunes sold today are often already soft and moist, so a shorter soak of 8 to 12 hours may be enough; judge by the fruit.
- Sugar and vinegarTwo pounds of sugar is about 4 1/2 cups. Use a vinegar labelled 5 percent acidity, cider or white wine; the acid is what preserves the fruit as much as the sugar does.
- Whole spicesHalf an ounce of whole cloves is roughly 2 tablespoons, and "whole ginger" here most likely means a piece of dried ginger root rather than fresh. Tie all the spices in cheesecloth so you can lift them out rather than picking cloves out of the jars.
- Simmer gentlyOnce the drained prunes go into the boiling syrup, drop the heat so the surface barely moves. The recipe gives no time: cook only until tender, checking often, since a hard boil splits the skins and you end up with spiced prune jam.
- Syrup consistencyIf the syrup seems thin after the fruit is tender, lift the prunes into the jars and reduce the syrup a few minutes on its own, then pour it over. It thickens noticeably as it cools.
- Storage\"Put in jars and seal\" reflects a time when a waxed or screw-top jar in a cool larder was considered enough. Treat this as a refrigerator pickle: cool, cover, and keep chilled, where it will hold for several weeks. For shelf-stable jars, follow a current tested water-bath processing schedule.
- Yield and servingThis is a large batch; four pounds of prunes plus syrup will fill well more than four pints, so have plenty of jars ready. Serve cold or at room temperature alongside roast pork, ham, goose or cold cuts, a spoonful or two per plate.
Sweet pickled fruit belongs to a long line of European sweet-sour preserves — spiced peaches, pickled pears, brandied cherries — that remained common in American households well into the twentieth century as an accompaniment to roast and cold meats. Prunes were the thrifty version: shelf-stable, cheap, available all year, and needing only a soak to bring them back. Preserves of this kind were kept on hand so that a plain cold joint could be dressed up without a trip to the shops. Clove, cinnamon and dried ginger are a common combination in preserves of this sort, and similar groupings recur in American spiced-fruit recipes.