Recipe no. 526 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 237.
Ingredients
- purple plums
- sugar
- vinegar
- cinnamon
- cloves
Preparation
- Prepare the plumsPrick the purple plums all round with a pin.
- Prepare the syrupPut a kilo of sugar into a basin, moisten with half a litre of good vinegar and let melt. Add a crushed cinnamon stick and about twenty cloves enclosed in a small muslin bag.
- First cookingBring the syrup to a boil and pour over the plums put into an earthenware dish. Leave thus until the next day.
- Second cookingPut the syrup back into the basin, bring it to a boil and pour it again over the plums. Cover the dish and wait until the third day.
- Final cookingPut plums and syrup into the basin and set on the heat. As soon as the boil sets in, take the fruit out delicately with the skimmer and place them in a jar.
- Reducing and pottingLet the syrup reduce to 30 degrees. Once half cooled, pour gently over the plums. Cover the jar once fully cold and store in a dry place.
Reboul's text
526. Sweet-and-sour plums
Take 6 dozen not-too-ripe purple plums, with their stalks, and prick them all round with a pin.
Put a kilo of sugar into a basin, moisten with half a litre of good vinegar and let melt; set on the heat with a crushed cinnamon stick and about twenty cloves enclosed in a small muslin bag. Bring to a boil and pour over the plums, which you will have put into an earthenware dish, and leave thus until the next day.
Put this syrup back into the basin, bring it to a boil and pour it again over the plums; cover the dish and, on the third day, put plums and syrup into the basin and set on the heat.
As soon as the boil sets in, take the fruit out delicately with the skimmer and place them in a jar. Let the syrup reduce to 30 degrees; take off the heat and, once half cooled, pour gently over the plums.
Do not cover the jar until it is fully cold, and store in a dry place.
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 |
|---|---|
| pruno | plums |
| sucre | sugar |
| vinaigre | vinegar |
| sirop | syrup |
| escumadouiro | skimmer |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 526, page 237. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.