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Beverage of Figs and Apples
Throw into two quarts of boiling water, six fresh figs, opened; cut up two apples and add skins, seeds and all. Boil twenty minutes; pass through a sieve. Very delicious.
A two-ingredient fruit tisane that behaves more like a thin apple-fig nectar than a tea. The whole thing hinges on straining: the pulp is what gives it body, so press it through rather than letting it drip.
- YieldTwo quarts of water will reduce somewhat over twenty minutes, and some liquid stays with the pulp; expect roughly six to seven cups, enough for several servings hot or four over ice.
- Fresh figs, and what to do without them"Fresh figs, opened" means ripe figs torn or halved so the interior pulp meets the water. If you only have dried, use three or four, quartered, and expect a darker, sweeter, more caramel-toned result; dried figs also thicken the liquid noticeably.
- Skins, seeds and allThe instruction is deliberate. Apple skins and cores carry much of the color and pectin and contribute tannin and body. Quarter the apples, do not peel or core, and use a tart variety such as Granny Smith or Bramley if you want the drink to taste of anything but sugar.
- Twenty minutes is not too longThis is a boil meant to break the fruit down rather than a delicate infusion. Stop when the apple quarters collapse under a spoon.
- Passing through a sieveUse a medium mesh and work the pulp through with the back of a ladle. Straining through cloth gives a clear liquid but discards nearly all the substance, which is the point of using apples with their skins on.
- SweeteningThe original adds none, which suits ripe figs. If your fruit is underripe, a tablespoon or two of sugar or honey stirred in while hot is in keeping; a strip of lemon peel dropped in for the last five minutes keeps it from tasting flat.
- Serving and keepingGood hot, and better cold after a night in the refrigerator, when the pectin gives it a slight thickness. It is unpreserved fruit juice with no acid added for safety, so keep it chilled and use within three days.
Fruit "beverages" of this kind occupy a particular corner of turn-of-the-century American cookbooks: drinks boiled from fruit and water, unfermented and usually unsweetened, offered as wholesome alternatives to wine, coffee and patent tonics. The beverage chapters of books like this one sit at the intersection of the temperance movement and the era's interest in invalid cookery, where a light, digestible fruit drink was thought suitable for the sick, the elderly and children. Figs in particular carried a long-standing reputation as a gentle laxative, which may be why they head the ingredient list here rather than any more familiar orchard fruit, though that is speculation. Fresh figs were a luxury in most of the country, and a household following this recipe outside fig season would presumably have reached for dried fruit instead.