No. 3694

Stewed Prunes

Compote de Pruneaux

Put a pound of fine dried prunes in a saucepan; cover with water; place on the range to boil up a few times so they can soften, then drain and cover with a twenty-eight degree syrup, adding two or three slices of lemon, a small piece of cinnamon and a quarter of a bottleful of red wine. Place the saucepan on the fire and let the whole boil slowly until the prunes are done, then leave stand till cold and serve on a compote dish.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional kitchen with a syrup hydrometer on the bench, so the only real obstacle here is the density scale. Everything else is straightforward stewed fruit.

"Twenty-eight degree syrup"Degrees Baumé, read with a saccharometer, as Ranhofer's kitchen would have done. Twenty-eight is a medium-heavy syrup, in the neighbourhood of equal weights of sugar and water — roughly 1 lb (about 2¼ cups) sugar dissolved in 2 cups water. Without a hydrometer the reading cannot be reproduced exactly, so treat that as an approximation and taste.
Quantity of syrupThe recipe does not say how much. A pound of prunes needs enough to cover them generously, roughly a quart of syrup; they will absorb a good deal as they cook.
The wineA quarter of a bottle is about 6 fl oz (175 ml). A dry red with some body — the period would have used claret. It is there for colour and tannin as much as flavour.
The first boiling"Boil up a few times" means brief plumping in plain water, not cooking through. Two or three minutes is enough; the point is to loosen the skins so the syrup can penetrate without bursting them.
Don't boil hard in the syrupThe hinge of the dish. Once the syrup goes on, keep it at a bare tremble. A rolling boil splits the skins and drives the flesh off the stones, and you get a purée rather than whole glossy fruit. Fifteen to twenty-five minutes depending on the prunes.
Prunes with stones"Fine dried prunes" in this period would have meant large unpitted prunes, French or Californian, which hold their shape far better than modern pitted ones. Pitted prunes work but need a shorter, gentler cooking and will look softer.
Cooling mattersThe instruction to "leave stand till cold" is not idleness — the fruit goes on taking up syrup as it cools, and the syrup thickens. Made a day ahead it is better still.
Yield and serviceA pound of prunes serves six to eight as a compote. Served cold in a footed compote dish, on its own or alongside roast game, cream, or a plain cake.

A Little History

This is No. 3694 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its terseness is characteristic: the book assumes a brigade that already knows what a 28-degree syrup is and keeps a hydrometer in the pastry section. A compote in this sense is fruit poached whole in sugar syrup and served in its own liquor, distinct from a preserve meant for keeping: a short life on the sideboard. Dried prunes, largely from Agen in southwestern France and by the 1890s increasingly from California orchards planted with French stock, were a year-round fruit in an era when fresh fruit was seasonal, and dressing them with red wine, lemon and cinnamon is often described as a characteristically French way of turning a cheap winter storecupboard item into something fit for a restaurant table.