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Compote of Plums
Cut the stalks off short from the desired number of plums, prick them all over and drop them into a sugar-boiler of syrup simmering gently for five or six minutes, then pour into a basin the plums and syrup; place the plums in a compote-dish or case with their stalks upward arranged in good order, and pour over them a little of the syrup flavored with noyau, and serve.
A plain poached-fruit dish that depends almost entirely on restraint: the plums must hold their shape and their skins. Oscar assumes you know how to make sugar syrup, so the proportions are yours to set.
- The hinge: prick, then barely simmerPricking lets steam escape so the skins do not split, and the syrup should never move beyond a lazy tremble. A true boil will burst the fruit and you will be serving stewed plums instead of a compote.
- Syrup strengthNo proportions are given. Something in the range of equal parts sugar and water by volume suits ripe plums, with more sugar for tart or underripe fruit. Enough to cover the fruit completely is the only firm requirement.
- "Sugar-boiler"A heavy, deep, untinned copper pan used for confectionery work. Any wide non-reactive saucepan does the job; wide matters more than deep, so the plums sit in a single layer.
- Five or six minutesThat is right for small, firm, barely ripe plums. Large soft ones may be done in two or three, so test with a skewer rather than the clock, and pull them while they still offer slight resistance.
- StalksThe presentation depends on each plum keeping a short stub of stem, which supermarket fruit almost never has. Damsons, greengages, mirabelles or farmers' market Italian prunes are the likely candidates; without stems, simply arrange them stem-scar down.
- NoyauA liqueur flavored with stone-fruit kernels, sold today as creme de noyaux and often dyed pink. Amaretto or a few drops of pure almond extract stand in acceptably. Add it to the syrup off the heat, a teaspoon at a time -- it is assertive.
- Cooling and holdingLet the fruit cool in its syrup so it reabsorbs liquid and firms slightly; it keeps several days covered and chilled, and is better on the second day.
- YieldFigure three to five plums per person as a dessert, with a spoonful or two of syrup. Cream, a plain sponge finger or a small scoop of ice cream is the usual accompaniment.
A compote in the French sense is simply whole or halved fruit poached in syrup, distinguished from a marmalade or jam by the fact that the fruit stays intact and the sugar stays a syrup rather than a set. The form was long established in French confectionery practice — it appears in Massialot and earlier — and passed into the American hotel kitchen wholesale. The instruction to leave short stalks pointing upward in a compote-dish is pure service-side thinking. Noyau, the flavoring, is a survivor of an older taste for bitter-almond notes in fruit desserts, drawn traditionally from cherry, apricot or peach kernels.