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Strawberry Sauce
Press one gill preserved strawberries through a sieve into a saucepan, adding one ounce sugar and half a gill water; boil for five minutes and serve.
A three-ingredient dessert sauce written in the shorthand of a professional kitchen. The measurements are small and the whole thing takes five minutes, so the only real decisions are about sweetness and consistency.
- GillIn American books a gill is half a cup (4 fl oz); in British ones it is 5 fl oz. Read as the former: 1/2 cup preserved strawberries, 1/4 cup water, and one ounce of sugar (about 2 tablespoons).
- Preserved strawberriesThis means strawberries put up in sugar syrup — jam or preserves, not fresh or frozen fruit. Good-quality strawberry preserves are the closest supermarket equivalent.
- Adjust the sugarPreserves are already heavily sweetened, so the added ounce of sugar may be more than a modern jar needs. Taste after the fruit and water are combined and add sugar only as needed.
- SievingThe sieve is there to strip out seeds and any whole fruit, giving a smooth coulis. Push the preserves through with the back of a ladle before heating; a fine mesh strainer works better than a food mill for this quantity.
- The five-minute boilThat is enough to dissolve the sugar and drive off a little water, which is where the gloss comes from. Watch it in a small pan — a half-cup of fruit puree will catch and scorch quickly, and long boiling can leave it setting firm as it cools.
- ConsistencyIf it thickens too far, thin with a spoonful of water off the heat. A splash of lemon juice at the end sharpens preserves that have gone flat in the jar.
- Yield and servingAbout a half cup — enough for two to four portions. Serve warm or cold over ice cream, rice pudding, blancmange, plain cake or steamed pudding.
Fruit sauces of this kind were a standing item in the professional repertoire long before strawberries were available year-round: a jar of preserves, sugar and water gave a kitchen a bright red sauce in any month, which fresh fruit could not. The sieve points to a concern with smoothness as a mark of finish. Such recipes often appear in strings of a few lines each rather than as fully explained dishes.