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Prune Water
Cook slowly for half an hour, one quarter of a pound of prunes and a thin strip of lemon peel, with three cupfuls of water. Boil for half an hour, and add the juice of half a lemon. Strain and sweeten to taste.
A sickroom beverage of the simplest kind: dried prunes simmered down to a lightly sweetened, faintly citrus infusion. Nothing about it is difficult, but the wording repeats itself and the quantities are in weights modern cooks no longer buy prunes by.
- The contradictory timing"Cook slowly for half an hour" and "Boil for half an hour" most likely describe one operation duplicated in the wording rather than a full hour of cooking; a gentle half-hour simmer is the sensible reading. Prunes held at a hard rolling boil will break up and cloud the liquid, which defeats the straining.
- A quarter pound of prunesAbout 4 oz, roughly 3/4 cup or 10 to 12 pitted dried prunes. Period prunes were dry and hard; today's moist-pack fruit softens faster, so check at 20 minutes.
- Lemon peel, not zestA "thin strip" means peel pared with a vegetable peeler, coloured layer only. Any white pith carried along will turn the drink bitter over a half-hour simmer.
- Water lossThree cupfuls will reduce to something under two by the end. Keep the pan partly covered if you want the full yield, or top up with hot water before straining.
- StrainingA fine sieve is enough for a clear-ish drink; line it with muslin if you want it bright. Press the fruit only lightly, or pulp goes through.
- SweeteningSugar to taste, added off the heat so it dissolves without further cooking. Prunes carry a good deal of their own sugar, so start with a teaspoon or two.
- Yield and servingAbout two cups, enough for two servings. The recipe gives no serving temperature; drinks of this kind were usually taken warm, but it is pleasant chilled, and the strained fruit is worth keeping and eating separately.
Prune water belongs to the old category of "invalid cookery" — the thin gruels, barley waters, beef teas and fruit infusions that nurses prepared for people too ill to eat much. Prunes had a settled reputation as a gentle laxative, so a prune drink did double duty in a sickroom: it was mild, sweet, and it was expected to do something. Dried prunes were a familiar item in the American pantry by around the turn of the twentieth century, California orchards having become the principal domestic source, which is part of why a cheap fruit drink like this could be assumed to be within reach of most households.