Recipe no. 542 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 241.
Ingredients
- chestnuts
- water
- vanilla
- loaf sugar
Preparation
- Preparing and cooking the chestnutsTake 1 kg of chestnuts, remove both skins, then cook them in a saucepan with two glasses of water and a vanilla pod, over low heat and covered.
- SievingWhen the chestnuts fall apart, pass them through a horsehair sieve.
- Preparing the syrupFor 1 kg of chestnut puree, take 1 kg of loaf sugar, put it into a basin, moisten with two glasses of water, let melt then cook about 10 minutes. The syrup is ready when it forms a thread of a certain resistance between the thumb and forefinger.
- Incorporating the syrupPour the syrup in, spoonful by spoonful, into the chestnut puree placed in an earthenware dish, working it with a wooden spoon to make it quite smooth.
- Final cooking and unmouldingPut the whole back into the basin and set on the heat. Let cook a quarter of an hour to 20 minutes without ceasing to work it. Pour into earthenware pots or moulds, let cool, then unmould and divide into small pieces. Let dry in the air and store in boxes.
Reboul's text
Take a kilo of chestnuts and remove both skins; put them to cook in a saucepan with two glasses of water and a vanilla pod, over low heat and covered. When the chestnuts fall apart, pass them through a horsehair sieve. For a kilo of puree a kilo of loaf sugar is needed, which you put into a basin, moisten with two glasses of water, let melt then cook about 10 minutes; when, taking some of this syrup between the thumb and forefinger, it forms a thread of a certain resistance, take it off the heat.
Put a spoonful of syrup after another into the chestnut puree, which you will have put into an earthenware dish, working it as you go with a wooden spoon to make it quite smooth. Put the whole back into the basin and set on the heat. Let cook a quarter of an hour to 20 minutes without ceasing to work it. Then transfer into earthenware pots or into whatever moulds you have available. Once cold, unmould to divide into small pieces of various shapes. Let dry in the air and enclose in boxes.
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 |
|---|---|
| amaroun | chestnuts |
| aigo | water |
| vaniho | vanilla |
| sedas | sieve |
| purèio | puree |
| sucre | sugar |
| sirop | syrup |
| fiò | heat |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 542, page 241. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.