Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (89 page)

5 deciliters (about 2 cups) of wine

5 deciliters (about 2 cups) of water

5 lemons

500 grams (about 1 pound) of white sugar

Boil the sugar in the water for five minutes. Remove from the fire and squeeze into the syrup the juice of the lemons, then pour in the wine. Strain through a cheesecloth. Put it back on the fire and let
simmer for twenty-five minutes. Bottle it after it has cooled. Serve it diluted with water and on ice in the summer. For long preservation, store in the cellar.

Must
¹³⁵
is really nothing more than a grape syrup. In the kitchen it can be used in a variety of ways because its special flavor goes well with certain dishes. Children are especially fond of it and in winter they mix it with freshly fallen snow to create instant sherbet.

Press some good quality very ripe freshly harvested white grapes. After a fermentation of approximately twenty-four hours, collect the must and strain it through a cheesecloth. Put the must on the fire and boil for many hours until it reaches a syrupy consistency. Bottle it for storage.

Preserves and fruit jellies are good to have on hand as they are often ingredients in the preparation of sweet dishes. They are enjoyed by the ladies as a finishing touch to a morning meal, and, spread on a slice of bread, they make an excellent snack for children, healthy and nutritious.

If this precious fruit of the solanaceae family (
Solatium Lycoper-sicum
), originally from South America, were more rare, it would be as costly as truffles, and maybe more so. Its juice goes well with so many dishes and keeps these such excellent company, that good tomato preserves are worth all the effort they require. There are many ways to make tomato preserves and everyone has his own. I will describe for you the recipe that I use and have been following for many years because I am happy with it.

Take field tomatoes, as those from the garden are too watery, and choose small ones over large ones. Crush them whole and put them over a wood fire in a copper kettle that is not tin-plated. don’t be afraid: the acid in the tomatoes will only attack the copper if the sauce is removed from the fire and loses heat. If it weren’t so, I would have experienced the symptoms of poisoning at least a hundred times. When they have cooked enough to dissolve, pour them into a finely-woven draining bag, and when the water has drained
off, pass the pulp through a sieve to separate the flesh from the seeds and skin; be sure to press down hard.

Wash the kettle carefully and return the puréed tomatoes to the fire to reduce them as much as necessary. To determine the precise consistency the preserves should have—and herein lies the difficulty— pour a few drops onto a plate and if they do not run nor form a watery ring, then you know that they are done. Bottle the preserves; here you will have further evidence of their sufficient density if you see that they take a while to go through the funnel.

Salicylic acid in the proportion of 3 grams (about 1/10 of an ounce) for every 2-1/3 liters (about 2-1/3 quarts) of preserves is used to preserve a fruit that has cooked less than I have described, and therefore is more liquid and natural. It is said to be harmless, but up until now I have refrained from using it because I know that the Government, as a matter of public health, has prohibited the sale of it. If you use the preserves on a daily basis it is better not to use the acid.

Choose small bottles that will be used up quickly. However, once opened, they keep for 12 or 13 days without harm to the preserves. I use those clear glass bottles in which Recoaro water is sold or, lacking these, the dark half bottles used for beer. Cork them by hand, but be sure that they are well sealed, and tie the corks with a string. Be sure to allow a little air between the cork and the liquid. Here the operation would appear to be complete, but there is an addendum which, however brief, is nevertheless necessary. Place the bottles in a large kettle with straw, rags or something similar packed around them so that they fit snugly. Pour enough water into the kettle to reach the neck of the bottles and light the fire underneath. Keep an eye on the bottles and when they get to the point where the cork would pop out had they not been properly tied, put out the fire, for now the operation is truly complete. Remove the bottles when the water has cooled or even sooner, press down the corks securely with your fingers and store the bottles in the cellar. There is no need to seal them, because well-made preserves will not ferment; but if they do ferment and the bottles should explode, you could safely assume that too much water was left in them and that is due to undercooking.

I have heard that if you heat the empty bottles in a stove and fill them when they are very hot, there is no need to boil the preserves once they are bottled; but I myself have not tested this procedure.

I highly recommend tomato preserves made in this manner, for they are very useful in the kitchen. However, even better than this is the procedure known as vacuum packing, in which you preserve fresh whole tomatoes in tin cans. I wished success to this little industry, which began in the town of Forli and seemed poised to do well; alas, difficulties arose; the Treasury immediately slapped a tax on them and the poor owner told me that he was thinking of closing down.

It would seem from the name that this is one of the strangest preserves, but upon testing, I found it no less worthy than many others.

Every plant is known by its seed, says Dante; however, if there remains no seed to betray the secret, no one would guess what these preserves are made of.

1 kilogram (about 2 pounds) of tomatoes

300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of white sugar

the juice of one lemon

a dash of vanilla and lemon zest

The tomatoes used for this recipe should be very ripe, meaty, and, if possible, round. Scald them in hot water, which makes them easy to peel. Once peeled, cut them in half and remove the seeds with the handle of a teaspoon. Dissolve the sugar over the fire in 2 fingers of water, then toss in the tomatoes, the lemon juice and a little grated lemon peel. Boil slowly, uncovered, stirring frequently and removing any seeds that remain. Lastly add a little vanilla sugar, and remove the mixture from the fire when it reaches the right consistency for preserves.

It is difficult to determine the amount of sugar for these preserves since it depends on the amount of water in the tomatoes. Make a double batch, since the tomatoes reduce significantly.

If plum preserves are the worst of all, apricot preserves are among the most delicate and therefore most people like them.

Take very ripe, good-quality apricots, as it is an error to believe that with inferior fruit you can achieve the same result; remove the stones, put them on the fire without water and while they are cooking crush them with the spoon to make a mush. When they have boiled for about a half hour, pass them through a sieve to separate the pulp from the skins and fibers. Return the apricots to the fire and add fine white powdered sugar, in the amount of 800 grams (about 1-3/4 pounds) of sugar for every kilogram (about 2 pounds) of pureed apricots. Stir frequently until the mixture reaches the consistency of preserves, which you can check by pouring a small spoonful on a plate; if the mixture runs slowly down the plate it is done. Pour the hot preserves into jars, and when they are cool, place wax paper directly on the preserves and cap the jar with thick paper tied with string.

Peach preserves are made in the same way, using very ripe peaches.

Even though plum preserves are one of the least liked, it would not be a bad idea to explain how to make them since many people nevertheless use them.

Any variety would do but it is preferable to use ripe greengage plums. Remove the stone and after a few minutes of boiling, pass them through a sieve. Return the plums to the heat with white powdered sugar, 60 grams (about 2 ounces) of sugar for every 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of whole plums, weighed as they are right off the tree.

If after some time the preserves begin to get moldy, it is a sign of undercooking. You can remedy this problem by reheating them. I keep them sometimes for four or five years and they suffer not at all or very little.

These preserves are known to soothe a sore throat, as well as being good to eat.

1 kilogram (about 2 pounds) of blackberries

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of white sugar

Use your hands to crush the blackberries, and then boil them for about ten minutes. Pass through a sieve and put back on the fire with the sugar. Cook until reduced to the consistency of fruit preserves.

For red currant preserves you can use recipe 739 for red currant jelly. For raspberry preserves, boil the unfermented fruit for twenty minutes and then pass through a sieve. Weigh the fruit without the seeds and return it to the fire, adding an equal weight of powdered sugar. Boil the mixture until it is reaches the consistency of preserves, which by now you should know how to recognize.

Raspberry preserves, used in small quantity, seem to me more suitable than any other as a filling for puff pastries.

Take yellow quinces, which are riper than green ones, core and cut them into slices half a finger thick. Cover with water and boil without stirring in a covered saucepan until well cooked. Pour them into a very fine-meshed sieve over a basin to catch all the water without squeezing them. Weigh this water and return it to the fire adding an equal weight of fine white sugar. Boil uncovered, skimming off the foam, until the liquid thickens sufficiently, which you will know either because the bubbles begin to form little pearls in the syrup, or because a drop of syrup poured on a plate does’t run.

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With the remaining quinces you can make preserves as in recipe 742, using as much sugar as the weight of the quinces once you have passed them through a sieve. I warn you, however, that they turn out to have little flavor or aroma.

Fruit jellies look best in little glass jars so that their color can be better appreciated, like this one, for instance, which turns a beautiful garnet red.

As we said in recipe 725 for red currant syrup, this fruit contains a great deal of gluten. Squeeze the juice through a kitchen towel and put it on the fire without fermenting it, along with 80 parts of white sugar for every 100 parts of juice. You will obtain a jelly even without much boiling. This jelly can be stored in jars like preserves, and is good for garnishing various desserts. It is a light and healthy food for convalescents.

Azaroles, which in some places are called royal apples, are a fruit that ripens toward the end of September; they can be red or white. To make preserves, choose the white ones, the largest and ripest you can find, that is those that have lost their greenish color.

1 kilogram (about 2 pounds) of azarole

80 grams (about 2-2/3 ounces) of white sugar

7 deciliters (about 2-4/5 cups) of water

Toss the azaroles in boiling water with their stems still attached; boil for ten minutes. While still hot, use the point of a small knife to remove the stones from the flower side, and if any of the fruit loses its shape, put it back together with your fingers, then peel without removing the stem. Dissolve the sugar in the 7 deciliters (about 2-4/5 cups) of water— you can even use the water in which you boiled the fruit. Add the azaroles, and when the liquid becomes a syrup, that is, when it begins
to fall in threads from the spoon, remove from the fire and store the fruit with the liquid in jars. They look as if they werer candied, and are very good.