Recipe no. 523 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 234.
Ingredients
- cantaloupe melon
- vinegar
- water
- sugar
- cloves
- cinnamon
Preparation
- PreparationChoose a cantaloupe melon. Divide into slices, cut in 2 and remove the rind and the part that is too tender.
- Cooking in vinegarBring a litre of good vinegar to a boil in a pan. Put the pieces in to cook slowly.
- DrainingWhen the pieces are cooked, take them out onto a sieve and arrange them in a glass jar.
- SyrupAdd half a litre of water to the vinegar and 3/4 kg of sugar. Boil this syrup 15 minutes.
- GaugingWhen the syrup reads 36 to 38 degrees on the syrup gauge, take it off the heat and let it cool halfway.
- FlavouringPut a dozen cloves and a crushed cinnamon stick into a small muslin bag. Place on the melon slices.
- FinishingPour the vinegar syrup over and let cool before covering and storing.
Reboul's text
For this kind of jam the cantaloupe melon is preferred. Divide it into slices which you cut in 2, then remove the rind and the part that is too tender. Bring to a boil in a pan a litre of good vinegar. Put the pieces in to cook slowly; when you judge them cooked, which you can tell by touching them, take them out onto a sieve, then arrange them in a glass jar; add half a litre of water to the vinegar and 3/4 kilo of sugar.
Boil this syrup 15 minutes. When it reads 36 to 38 degrees on the syrup gauge (1) take it off the heat and let it cool halfway. Put a dozen cloves and a crushed cinnamon stick into a small muslin bag, place them on the melon slices, pour the vinegar syrup over and let cool before covering it to store.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| meloun | cantaloupe melon |
| vinaigre | vinegar |
| sucre | sugar |
| casseto | pan |
| sedas | sieve |
| sirop | syrup |
| counfituro | jam |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 523, page 234. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.