No. 2765 — Cherry and Pear Compote
English historical translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 2765 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original methods and measures.
Take 1 pound of cherries, clean and stone them. The historical original calls for sugar syrup with 2 glasses of water and a few pounded cherry stones. Add the pitted cherries, bring again to the boil and drain in a sieve.
Put the drained cherries on a dish and keep cool. Reduce the cherry syrup to the desired thickness, strain, cool and pour over the cherries.
Peel 6–8 pears, halve and core them, then cook until soft in syrup made from 2 glasses of water and ¼ pound of sugar. Lift the pears out with a slotted spoon and arrange around the cherries. Strain the pear syrup, reduce to ¾ glass, cool and pour over the pears.
To provide
1 pound of cherries, about 3 glasses. 6–8 pears. | ½–¾ pound of sugar. |