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Compote of Pears
Pare and quarter eight nice pears, and put in a porcelain saucepan with water enough to cook; put on lid, and cook fruit until tender, then remove to a platter; make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a pint of pear-water; add juice of two lemons and the grated rind of one, and put in the pears; cook them for a few minutes in this syrup, then remove to the dish in which they are to be molded. Soak an ounce of gelatine for an hour or two in enough water to cover it, and stir it into the hot syrup; let boil up once and turn it over fruit through a strainer. The mold should be dipped in cold water before putting in fruit. When cold, turn jelly into a dish and serve with whipped cream around the base, or pour sweet cream over it in saucers.
A poached-pear jelly, moulded and turned out. The proportions are sound, but the gelatine measure is the one figure that needs translating before you begin.
- The gelatineAn ounce of granulated gelatine is roughly four modern quarter-ounce envelopes, about 28 g, setting the pint of pear-water syrup called for here. That should give a firm, sliceable jelly meant to stand up when unmoulded; if you want something softer and spoonable, two or three envelopes is likely enough. Modern granulated gelatine also does not need the full hour's soak — five to ten minutes in cold water is generally plenty.
- "Porcelain saucepan"This means an enamelled or enamel-lined pan, chosen because the acid from the pears and lemon juice reacts with bare iron and can pick up a grey cast. Any nonreactive pan — stainless, enamel, glass — will do.
- Pear-waterThe pint of liquid the pears cooked in, not fresh water. It carries most of the flavour, so do not discard it. If the pears absorbed too much and you are short, top up to 2 cups.
- Sugar and pint measuresA pound of granulated sugar is about 2¼ cups; a pint is 2 cups. That ratio makes a heavy syrup, which is what gives the finished jelly its gloss and keeping quality.
- Choosing the pearsUse firm, slightly underripe fruit — Bosc and Anjou hold their shape through two cookings. Ripe Bartletts will collapse into the syrup. Eight quartered pears is a generous mould; expect to serve six to eight.
- Cooking timeThe original gives none. Simmer the quarters covered until a knife slides in with slight resistance, usually 10 to 15 minutes depending on ripeness, then a further two or three minutes in the syrup. Fully soft pears will fall apart when the jelly is turned out.
- Setting and unmouldingWetting the mould, as directed, is what lets the jelly release. Chill at least four to six hours, or overnight. To turn out, dip the mould briefly in warm water to the rim, then invert onto a cold plate.
- StrainingPouring the syrup through a strainer catches any undissolved gelatine grains, which would show as cloudy specks. Worth doing even with modern gelatine.
Moulded fruit jellies were long a fixture of American dessert tables, and their spread is often linked to the wider availability of packaged gelatine — before that, a cook might make her own by boiling calves' feet, an all-day job that put clear jellies firmly in the territory of large households with staff. Buying gelatine by the ounce, as this recipe assumes, put a moulded jelly within reach of an ordinary kitchen. Compote is borrowed from the French for fruit cooked in syrup, though the French term does not imply a jelly. Pears suited the treatment because they poach without disintegrating and their poaching liquid is delicate enough to take a lemon lift. The choice of whipped cream around the base or sweet cream poured over in saucers marks the difference between a company dessert and a family one.