Recipe no. 452 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 208.
Ingredients
- Sugar, 250 grams
- Water, a glass
- Kirsch or rum or coffee essence
Preparation
- Cooking the sugar syrupPut into a bowl 250 grams of cut sugar which you sprinkle with a glass of water; let it boil vigorously.
- Cooking the syrup to soft ball stageWhen, dipping a wet finger into this syrup and dipping it immediately into cold water, then rolling between two fingers the syrup left adhering to it, it forms something like a soft paste, it is cooked to the right point. Immediately dip the bottom of the bowl into cold water, to stop the cooking; pour the syrup onto the marble slab, and work it briskly with a wooden spatula.
- Working the fondantWhen the heat has gone down and the fondant forms a white mass, spread it out several times with the palm of the hand.
- Storing and reheating the fondantThis fondant is kept in a bowl with a small damp cloth over it. When ready to use it, it is enough to heat the required amount in a saucepan, adding a few drops of water and the preferred flavouring: a few drops of kirsch, rum, coffee essence, etc.
Reboul's text
Put into a bowl 250 grams of cut sugar which you sprinkle with a glass of water; let it boil vigorously.
When, dipping a wet finger into this syrup and dipping it immediately into cold water, then rolling between two fingers the syrup left adhering to it, it forms something like a soft paste, it is cooked to the right point. Immediately dip the bottom of the bowl into cold water, to stop the cooking; pour the syrup onto the marble slab, and work it briskly with a wooden spatula.
When the heat has gone down and the fondant forms a white mass, spread it out several times with the palm of the hand.
This fondant is kept in a bowl with a small damp cloth over it. When ready to use it, it is enough to heat the required amount in a saucepan, adding a few drops of water and the preferred flavouring: a few drops of kirsch, rum, coffee essence, etc.
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 |
|---|---|
| sucre | sugar |
| aigo | water |
| sirop | syrup |
| espatulo | spatula |
| roum | rum |
| cafè | coffee |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 452, page 208. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.