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Grape Tartlettes
Line oval patty shells with puff paste and into each, while baking, stuff a closely wadded piece of brown paper. The paste should be pricked several times before the paper is placed in the tin and the paper must not be pushed too closely against the paste. When baked a delicate brown, remove the paper and fill the shell with grape mixture made as follows: Make a syrup of a cup of granulated sugar and a half-cup each of water and California Angelica wine. Moisten a half-teaspoon of arrowroot to a smooth paste and stir in as thickening. Remove seeds from a cup of Malaga grapes (or any other kind preferred) and put grapes in this syrup. Allow the mixture to simmer until grapes are soft and syrup thick. If too thick, thin with a little more of the Angelica. When cool, fill the puff paste shells, and, at serving time, top each one with whipped cream and a single uncooked grape laid open in halves.
A blind-baked puff paste shell with a stovetop grape compote — simple enough, but two details in the original will trip up a modern cook: the paper weights and the arrowroot.
- The brown paper is a pie weightWadded paper held the shell open and the walls upright; dried beans and other loose weights were also used in this period. A crumpled parchment round with dried beans or ceramic weights does the same job, and the same caution applies: keep it off the sides so the paste can rise in layers.
- Prick, don't shredDocking the base with a fork lets steam escape so the bottom stays flat. A few clean punctures are enough; over-pricking lets the syrup soak through later.
- Oven heatThe original gives no oven temperature. Puff paste wants a hot oven; in modern terms around 425F works. Bake until the shells are set and pale gold, remove the weights, and give them another five minutes or so to dry the interior.
- California AngelicaA sweet fortified white wine, historically made in California and associated with Mission grapes. It is scarce now. A sweet Muscat, a cream sherry, or a white port stands in closely for both the sugar and the floral note.
- Arrowroot behaves unlike flourIt thickens at a lower temperature and breaks down if held at a hard boil, going thin and slack. Stir the slurry in near the end and keep the syrup at a bare simmer only until it coats a spoon.
- Malaga grapesA large, firm, seeded white table grape with muscat character, sold widely in 1900 and rarely now. Any firm seedless grape works — red globe or a green muscat type holds shape best. Thin-skinned seedless varieties will collapse before the syrup thickens.
- Fill cold, serve at onceWarm filling in a warm shell turns the pastry to paste within minutes. Cool both fully, fill close to serving, and add the cream and the raw halved grape at the table.
- YieldThe original gives no yield. A cup of grapes with this quantity of syrup will fill several small oval tartlettes -- how many depends entirely on the size of your tins.
The Butterick Cook Book (1911) came from the pattern company that published The Delineator, and its dessert chapters reflect the aspirations of a well-run middle-class American kitchen — puff paste made at home, fruit dressed up with wine, a piped finish. The California Angelica called for here is the period detail worth noticing: a sweet fortified wine associated with the old Mission vineyards of southern California, it seems to have been used in cookbooks of the period much as it is here, as a sweet flavoring for compotes and creams where an English book would have reached for sherry or Madeira. Malaga grapes, named for the Spanish port, were shipped and stored through the winter in cork or sawdust and were a standard dessert fruit before refrigerated transport widened the choice. Prohibition followed a decade later.