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Croutes Aux Ananas
Cut from a loaf stale sandwich bread six slices a half inch thick, then cut each slice in two-and-a-half-inch circles. Thoroughly mix in a bowl one fresh egg, two gills milk, one ounce fine sugar and a half teaspoon vanilla essence. Dip each piece of bread into the custard, two at a time. Heat one and a half tablespoons butter in a frying pan, place the slices of bread in pan and gently fry for three minutes on each side, or until a nice golden colour. Lift up with a skimmer, drain on a cloth, place on a hot dish and keep hot. Trim, peel and pick out the eyes of a medium pineapple, cut it in half and remove the stalk, then cut into thin slices. Place in a saucepan with a pint water, two ounces sugar, and a tablespoon Swiss kirschwasser. Boil for twenty-five minutes, drain, then cut into exceedingly small square pieces. Evenly divide the pieces over the six crusts, pour a teaspoon of kirsch into the liquor, lightly mix, pour the sauce over the crusts and serve.
A French-style dessert entremets: rounds of bread soaked in custard, fried in butter, and topped with kirsch-poached pineapple. The measures are Edwardian and the sauce needs attention it does not get in the text.
- Gills and ouncesTwo gills of milk is 8 to 10 fl oz depending on whether the measure is US or imperial, so roughly one to one and a quarter cups. One ounce of fine (caster) sugar is about 2 tablespoons; the two ounces for the pineapple syrup is about a quarter cup. "Vanilla essence" is vanilla extract.
- The sauce is the weak pointA pint of water with only 2 oz sugar, boiled 25 minutes, still drains off thin and will soak the fried bread to mush. Reduce the drained liquor over high heat to a light syrup that coats a spoon before adding the final kirsch, and spoon it on at the table rather than in the kitchen.
- Pineapple timingTwenty-five minutes at a boil suggests firm, acidic fruit rather than a ripe one. A ripe modern pineapple is tender in 8 to 12 minutes at a bare simmer; longer turns it to fibrous threads.
- Canned pineappleIf using canned slices in juice, skip the poaching entirely. Simmer the drained juice with the sugar to a syrup, dice the fruit, and finish with the kirsch.
- KirschwasserAn unsweetened clear cherry brandy, not a sweet cherry liqueur. Add the second teaspoon off the heat so the aroma survives; most of the volatile character of the first spoonful is lost over a twenty-five-minute boil.
- Bread and fryingStale close-crumbed white sandwich bread is correct here: fresh bread collapses in the custard. Dip briefly, two rounds at a time as directed, and expect to add butter between batches. Three minutes a side over moderate heat gives the golden colour without a raw centre.
- YieldSix rounds, so six small servings or three generous ones. The trimmings left from cutting circles are worth frying alongside for the cook.
Croûtes — literally crusts — were a standing category of hot sweet entremets in professional French kitchens of the late nineteenth century, made from stale bread or brioche fried or oven-dried and dressed with fruit and a liqueur syrup. They belong to the same thrift-minded family as pain perdu and English poor knights of Windsor, but dressed for the dining room. What marks this version as a product of its moment is the pineapple: improvements in shipping had by this period brought fresh pineapple within reach of hotel and household kitchens in Europe and America, though the fruit still arrived firm and acidic, which explains the long boil in sugar and water. The insistence on Swiss kirschwasser may reflect a habit, often said to be current in kitchen texts of the day, of naming a region for a spirit as a guarantee of grade — the same reasoning that is generally seen behind specifying Jamaica rum or Cognac brandy.