flipHoneyed Apples and Plums with Juniper (Autumn Preserve)
Honeyed Apples and Plums with Juniper (Autumn Preserve)
Why this dish? Running a royal Frankish household means preparing for winter. In the orchards and forests around Tournai and Reims, apples and plums are harvested and preserved in honey for the dark months. These sweet and tart fruits reappear on Basine's table when the earth yields nothing more: a sweetness wrested from the cold.
Apples and plums gently cooked in honey perfumed with juniper, potted to last through winter. The reserve sweetness of a well-kept house, tart and comforting.
When autumn gilds the orchards, let nothing be lost, for the northern winter is long and stingy. I have the soundest apples and plums gathered, and I have them melt very slowly in honey, with a few juniper berries for bite. We seal it all in earthenware pots, sheltered, and behold, on icy nights when snow holds the threshold, we open a pot and it is all of summer that returns on the tongue. A good mistress of the house is known by her reserves.
- •Apples — a full basket (base fruit)
- •Plums — a good share (tartness)
- •Honey — enough to coat (sweetener and preservative)
- •Juniper berries — a pinch (aromatic)
Honeyed Apples and Plums with Juniper (Autumn Preserve)
Apples and plums gently cooked in honey perfumed with juniper, potted to last through winter. The reserve sweetness of a well-kept house, tart and comforting.
Why this dish? Running a royal Frankish household means preparing for winter. In the orchards and forests around Tournai and Reims, apples and plums are harvested and preserved in honey for the dark months. These sweet and tart fruits reappear on Basine's table when the earth yields nothing more: a sweetness wrested from the cold.
When autumn gilds the orchards, let nothing be lost, for the northern winter is long and stingy. I have the soundest apples and plums gathered, and I have them melt very slowly in honey, with a few juniper berries for bite. We seal it all in earthenware pots, sheltered, and behold, on icy nights when snow holds the threshold, we open a pot and it is all of summer that returns on the tongue. A good mistress of the house is known by her reserves.
Ingredients (period version)
- Apples — a full basket (base fruit)
- Plums — a good share (tartness)
- Honey — enough to coat (sweetener and preservative)
- Juniper berries — a pinch (aromatic)
Ingredients
- Firm apples — 500 g (base fruit)
- Plums — 300 g (tartness)
- Honey — 200 g (sweetener and preservative)
- Water — 100 ml (loosens the cooking)
- Juniper berries — 1 tsp, crushed (aromatic)
Method
- Peel and quarter the apples; pit and halve the plums.
- In a wide saucepan, combine the honey, water and crushed juniper berries. Heat gently until the honey becomes liquid.
- Add the fruits and let stew over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring gently, until tender and coated in an amber syrup.
- To preserve: pour boiling hot into scalded jars, seal immediately and turn upside down until cool.
- Serve warm or cold, alone, on a porridge or alongside roasted meat.
How it was made : Before cane sugar, honey was the great preserver of fruits: its sweetening and antibacterial power allowed apples, plums and berries to be kept for winter. Preserving harvests was an essential domestic skill in the Frankish world, where famine lurked in the bad season. Apples and plums, attested in Gaul, were among cultivated or foraged fruits.
The contemporary twist : Serve in a verrine over a spoonful of whipped fresh cheese, as a 'Tournai orchard' dessert — the tartness of plums awakens the sweetness of honey.
Sources : Massimo Montanari, La faim et l'abondance. Histoire de l'alimentation en Europe · Patrick Périn, Laure-Charlotte Feffer, Les Francs
Basina of Thuringia · Charactorium
