Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (90 page)

Spread on bread slices, fruit preserves are a good way of satisfying children’s hunger once in a while. For this reason alone, if for nothing else, prudent mothers should keep them on hand.

Some people recommend that quinces be cooked unpeeled so that they retain more of their aroma. But this seems unnecessary to me, since this fruit has plenty of aroma and by cooking as explained below you are saved the trouble of passing them through a sieve.

800 grams (about 1-3/4 pounds) of quinces, peeled and cored

500 grams (about 1 pound) of fine white sugar

Dissolve the sugar on the fire in half a glass of water, boil for a short while and then set aside.

Cut the quinces into very thin slices and put them on the fire in a copper saucepan with a cup of water. Keep them covered but stir often, using the spoon to break and crush them. When they have become tender, pour in the sugar syrup you have prepared. Stir often and allow the mixture to boil in an uncovered saucepan until it reaches the right consistency, which you can recognize when it falls in thin sheets from the spoon.

Made in the following manner you can keep it thin enough to be spread on bread.

Cut the quinces into sections, core them, leave the peel, weigh them, then cover them with water and put on the fire.

When the quinces are well cooked, pass them through a sieve.
Put them back on the fire in their water and as much powdered sugar as the weight of the raw quinces. But only add the sugar after the mixture has come to a boil. Stir often and when you see that they are not too thin (test by pouring a few drops on a plate), remove them from the heat.

12 oranges

1 garden lemon

the weight of the oranges in fine white sugar

1/2 the weight of the oranges in water

4 tablespoons of genuine rum

Prick the oranges all over with a fork, then soak them for 3 days, changing the water morning and night. On the fourth day, cut the oranges in half, and then each half into half-centimeter sections (about 1/4 of an inch), discarding the seeds. Weigh the oranges and only then determine how much sugar and water you will need according to the above proportions. First boil the oranges in the water for ten minutes, then add the lemon cut in half, and immediately thereafter pour in the sugar, stirring constantly until the mixture returns to a fast boil—this will prevent the sugar from settling at the bottom and sticking to the saucepan.

In order to determine when they are done, every now and then pour a drop onto a plate, blow on it and when it does not run easily, immediately remove the mixture from the heat. Wait until the preserves are lukewarm to add the rum, and then store in jars like all other fruit preserves. Keep in mind that these have the added virtue of aiding digestion.

You can also do without the lemon.

Let’s see if I can also satisfy those who would like to know how to make preserves with bitter oranges.

Boil the bitter oranges in water until a twig will pass easily through them. Transfer the oranges to cold water and let them soak for two days, changing the water often. Then cut them as in the preceding recipe, discarding the seeds and the white filaments that you find on the inside. Then weigh them and put them on the fire without water with 150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of fine white sugar for every 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of fruit. Simmer and make sure that the syrup does not become too thick, which will cause the oranges to become hard.

I did not know that the rose, the queen of flowers whose splendid palace is in the Orient, counts among its many merits that singular quality of transforming itself into a good-tasting, fragrant preserve.

Out of all its species and varieties, the one that I prize and admire above all is the moss rose
¹³⁶
since, when its blossoms begin to open and I observe them closely, they reawaken in me, as they likely do in others, the symbolic idea of virginal chastity. And perhaps it was these blossoms that inspired Ariosto to write these beautiful octaves:

La verginella é simile alia rosa
Ch’in bel giardin sulla nativa spina
Mentre sola a sicura si riposa,
Né gregge né pastor se le avvicina:
L’aura soave e I’alba rugiadosa,
L’acqua, la terra al suo favor s’inchina;
Giovani vaghi e donne innamorate
Amano averne e sent e tempie ornate
.

Ma non sì tosto dal materno stelo
Rimossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde,
che quanto avea dagli uomini e dal cielo
Favor, grazia e belleza, tutto perde.
La vergine che ’l fior, di che più zelo
Che de’ begli occhi e della vita aver de’,
Lascia altrui cone, il pregio ch’avea innanti
Perde nel cor di tutti gli altri amanti
.

(The virgin has her image in the rose
Sheltered in garden on its native stock,
Which there in solitude and safe repose,
Blooms unapproached by shepherd or by flock.
For this earth teems, and freshening water flows,
And breeze and dewy dawn their sweets unlock:
With such the wishful youth his bosom dresses,
With such the enamored damsel braids her tresses.

But wanton hands no sooner this displace
From the maternal stem, where it was grown,
Than all is withered; whatsoever grace
It found with man or heaven; bloom, beauty, gone.
The damsel who should hold in higher place
Than light or life the flower which is her own,
Suffering the Spoiler’s hand to crop the prize,
Forfeits her worth in every other’s eyes.)
¹³⁷

A kind elderly lady, whose memory I carry etched in my heart, cultivated this species of rose in her garden as her favorite, and knowing my predilection for those lovely, poetic flowers, gave me some every year in the month of May.

The best time to make this preserve is when the roses are in full bloom from the 15th of May to the 10th of June. Use the so-called “May” roses, which are pink and very fragrant. Remove the petal from the flowers and cut away the yellow part found at the base of the petal; the most time-saving way to do this is to take the entire blossom in your left hand, or better, the corolla of the rose, and with your right hand, armed with scissors, cut it all the way around just above the base of the calyx. Here is the recipe:

600 grams (about 1-1/3 pounds) of fine white sugar

200 grams (about 7 ounces) rose petals

6 deciliters (2-2/5 cups) of water

1/2 a lemon

1 teaspoon breton for coloring

Place the petals in a metal bowl with 200 grams (about 7 ounces) of sugar and the juice of the half lemon. Mash the petals with your hands, tearing them and reducing them as best you can to a paste. Dissolve the rest of the sugar in the water and then add the petals: boil until thickened to the consistency of a syrup (test by taking a drop between your fingers to see if it is sticky but be careful not to wait until it forms a thread). Before removing it from the fire, add color with the
breton
, which is optional if you don’t care about the color.
Breton
is a harmless red vegetable liquid, named as such by its inventor, which is used to color any sort of sweet.

What I have just described is the simplest way to make rose preserves, and the way I prefer, but the petals do get a little tough. If you would like more tender petals, first boil them for five minutes in water, strain, squeeze to remove the excess water and then crush them in a mortar as much as possible with the 200 grams (about 7 ounces) of sugar and the lemon juice. Next dissolve the remaining sugar in the same water and then add the rose paste. From here proceed as already explained.

When the preserves have cooled, can and store them as you would other fruit preserves.

650 grams (about 1-1/2 pounds) of very fine white sugar

360 grams (about 12-2/3 ounces) of water

250 grams (about 1 cup) of 36-proof wine spirits

a pinch of saffron

1 orange

Remove the outermost part of the orange peel with a penknife and place it in a jar, pouring over it the spirits mixed with the saffron. Cover the jar with perforated paper and let sit for three days. In another jar, combine the sugar and the water. Shake the jar every now and then so that the sugar dissolves completely. On the fourth day mix the two liquids together and let them rest for another eight days. Now strain the rosolio through a cloth, then filter it through paper or cotton, and finally bottle it.

800 grams (about 1-3/4 pounds) of fine white powdered sugar

1 liter (about 1 quart) of rain or spring water

8 deciliters (about 3-1/3 cups) of strong spirits

3 garden lemons, still somewhat green

Combine the sugar and water in a jar which you will shake every day until the sugar is completely dissolved.

In the meantime, grate the lemon peels and steep them in 2
deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of the spirits for eight days. For the first three or four days, shake the jar often, and in the winter keep in a warm place. After eight days, strain the infusion of lemon peels through a wet cloth, squeezing well. Mix the extracted liquid with the remaining 6 deciliters (about 2-2/5 of a cup) of spirits and allow it to rest for twenty-four hours. The next day mix the lemon water with the syrup and then pour the liquid into a flask, which you should shake every now and then. After fifteen days, strain the liquid through paper or several times through cotton. Place the cotton in the narrow end of a funnel and insert a broom twig with a few branches in it to facilitate the passage of the liquid.

This is made in the same way described in the preceding recipe. However, instead of making an infusion of lemon peels, use 50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of Romagnol aniseed, and I specify Romagnol because this aniseed, on account of its pleasant flavor and strong fragrance, is without exaggeration the best in the world. However, before using the seeds, wash them in water to remove the soil that has most likely been mixed in with them deliberately to adulterate the product. It must have been sixty years ago by now when some honest men pointed out to me the villain who had begun this disgraceful practice. Those who follow in his footsteps, and there are many, use a clay soil similar in color to aniseed. They dry it in the oven, then sift it to reduce it to the same size as the aniseed, into which it is mixed in a ratio of ten or even twenty percent.

Some earboxing would be in order for those who make an ill-gotten profit by adulterating the products of their own land. They don’t consider the harm that they do, which most of the time comes back to haunt them. They do not think about the discredit they do to their own merchandise, the mistrust that ensues, and the danger of alienating their customers. I have always heard it said that honesty is the heart of business, and Benjamin Franklin said that if rascals knew all the advantages that come from being honest they would be gentlemen purely on the basis of selfish interest.

My long experience in life has shown me that honesty, in business and in industry, is the best policy if you want to be successful in this world.

A soldier of the first empire told me that he had read on a pharmacy canister in Moscow:
Aniseed from Forli
. I do not know if it is known by this name outside of Italy; but this plant of the umbelliferous family is exclusively cultivated in the countryside around Meldola, Bertinoro and Faenza, near Brisighella.