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Compote of Apricots with Kirsch
Open a pint can of apricots, place syrup in a saucepan, let come to a boil, pour in two tablespoons kirsch, mix well, arrange apricots on a compotier, pour syrup over and serve.
A two-minute dessert built on canned fruit, and the only real decisions are the vessel and how much of the kirsch survives the heat.
- CompotierA footed glass or porcelain dish for fruit, shallow and wide. Any shallow serving bowl works; the point is that the apricot halves sit in one layer with the syrup pooled around them rather than submerged.
- A pint canA pint is a volume measure, roughly comparable to today's smaller fruit cans rather than the large 29 oz size. A 15 oz can of apricot halves in syrup is a reasonable substitution, giving somewhere around eight halves.
- KirschClear, unsweetened cherry brandy distilled from whole fruit including the stones, which is where its faint almond edge comes from. Kirsch-flavoured liqueurs are sweet and thick and will make the syrup cloying; look for something labelled kirschwasser.
- When to add the spiritOff the heat. The recipe says pour it into the boiling syrup, but the aroma is volatile and boiling it away leaves you with plain syrup. Take the pan off the burner, stir in the kirsch, then pour.
- Reduce the syrupCanned syrup is thin. The recipe asks only that it come to a boil, but letting it bubble a little longer will thicken it somewhat, though thin syrup will still tend to run to the bottom of the dish.
- TemperatureAs written, hot syrup goes over fruit straight from the tin, giving a warm-over-cool contrast; the compote can also be chilled for several hours before serving.
- YieldFour small servings. Cream, a plain sponge finger or a spoonful of the syrup over vanilla ice cream all absorb it well.
Compote in French usage means fruit cooked or served in syrup, distinct from a preserve in that it is eaten soon after making rather than kept. Cookbooks of the early twentieth century contain many such near-instant compotes, commercially canned fruit having become cheap and reliable, so that a kitchen could produce a dessert course from the storeroom in the time it took to boil syrup. Kirsch is associated above all with the Black Forest and the Swiss and Alsatian side of the Rhine, and it turns up in period cookbooks paired with cherries, apricots and pineapple.