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Orange and Apple Salad
Peel and core three sound apples and cut them into thin slices; place them in a bowl. Peel and carefully skin three medium, juicy oranges, cut into thin slices, remove the seeds and place them with the apples. Season with two ounces of powdered sugar, a tablespoon each rum, kirsch and maraschino; mix well, then keep in a cool place until needed. Mix well again just before serving.
A macedoine of fruit in the French manner, and it stands or falls on the knife work: the oranges must be stripped of every scrap of white membrane before slicing.
- "Powdered sugar"In books of this period this usually means finely granulated sugar, closer to today's caster sugar than to confectioners' sugar with its cornstarch. Two ounces is about 1/4 cup; start with half if the oranges are sweet.
- "Carefully skin" the orangesThis means cutting away the pith and the tough membrane, not just the peel. Slice off top and bottom, stand the fruit up, cut down the sides following the curve, then slice across into rounds and flick out seeds.
- Apples"Sound" means unbruised and firm. Choose a crisp variety that holds its shape and does not go mealy in liquid; the acid from the orange juice and spirits will help slow browning on the cut slices if you mix promptly.
- The three liqueursKirsch is a dry cherry brandy, maraschino a sweeter one made from marasca cherries. Modern maraschino liqueur is fine; the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries is not the same thing. If you have only one of the three, use three tablespoons of it.
- "Keep in a cool place"An hour or two in the refrigerator is enough to draw out juice and let the flavours marry. Left overnight the apple slices turn limp and the oranges shed water.
- Yield and servingThree apples and three oranges serve four to six as a light dessert. Serve in glasses with the accumulated syrup spooned over, or use it as a bed under a spoonful of whipped cream or a plain sponge cake.
Recipes like this treat the fruit salad in the French manner of a "macedoine de fruits" -- raw fruit sliced, sugared and steeped in spirits -- rather than as the mayonnaise-dressed fruit salads also found in American cookbooks. Rum, kirsch and maraschino were all common flavourings in professional pastry work, and maraschino was long used in compotes, gelatines and soaked cakes as well as in drinks.