Special Method of Stewing Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the fruit with bicarbonate of potash or soda.
Taste the fruit while stewing; if it tastes soapy, add more fruit.
Use less sugar to avoid masking the acidity.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fruit
- Provides the main body and flavor of the dish.
- Bicarbonate of potash or soda
- Alkaline, it softens the fruit and raises pH, so too much leaves a soapy taste.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, and using less lets the fruit's acidity show.
The step that matters
Tasting while stewing. Bicarbonate of potash or soda is alkaline, and too much of it leaves a soapy taste that the fruit cannot hide. Tasting as it cooks lets you catch this early, and adding more fruit dilutes the excess alkali.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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