Recipe no. 558 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 247.
Ingredients
- violets
- water
- sugar
Preparation
- Preparing the violetsPut 125 grams of picked-over violets into an earthenware dish and pour over them a quarter litre of boiling water.
- InfusingPut a lid on the violets to keep them pressed down into the water; cover them and set them on the warm ashes for 2 hours.
- Extracting the waterPass the violets through a cloth, which you squeeze to extract the water (you should obtain about half a litre).
- Preparing the syrupPut 750 grams of sugar into a pan with a quarter litre of water and bring to a boil.
- Cooking to the right stageSkim and continue cooking until, dipping the fingers in water and then into the sugar, then dipping them again in water, the sugar clinging to your fingers breaks off cleanly.
- Finishing the syrupPour the violet water into the syrup. Take great care that the syrup does not boil again; after thorough mixing, bottle it.
Reboul's text
For 125 grams of picked-over violets, which you put into an earthenware dish, pour over them a quarter litre of boiling water; put a lid on the violets to keep them pressed down into the water; cover them and set them on the warm ashes for 2 hours; then pass the violets through a cloth, which you squeeze to extract the water.
This quantity of violets should yield close to half a litre.
Put 750 grams of sugar into a pan with a quarter litre of water and bring to a boil.
Skim and continue cooking until, dipping the fingers in water and then into the sugar, then dipping them again in water, the sugar clinging to your fingers breaks off cleanly; then pour in the violet water.
Take great care that your syrup does not boil again; after thorough mixing, bottle it.
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 |
|---|---|
| vióulet | violets |
| aigo | water |
| sucre | sugar |
| bouie | boil |
| escuma | skim |
| sirop | syrup |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 558, page 247. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.