Captivated by the continuous one-shot column “ ” / Part 3 Captivated by Erika Kobayashi’s “Gooseberry Jelly”
When I was reading the biography of the famous Madame Curie, the scientist and father of radioactivity, there was a part that made me stop turning the page.
It was a quote from a memo taken just before the monumental discovery of radium in 1898. Just before the statement that radium, a still unknown radioactive substance, must contain extremely high levels of radioactivity, her cooking notes were quoted.
It says that he prepared 4 kg each of currants and coarse sugar and made 14 jars of delicious currant jelly.
The radium and currant jelly was extracted and made by the same woman!
With astonishment, I began to think that I too wanted to try that currant jelly.
Of course, the same recipe she made in 1898!
Fortunately, the title of the cookbook was written there, so I used the French title to find the book.
I believe that this is probably the cookbook that she got her hands on: Menon's ``La Cuisinière bourgeoise,'' first published in 1746.
(A portion has also been translated into Japanese and published as ``Taste of Happiness: Eating and Loving (18th Century Series)'' and ``Town Table'' by Kokusho Kanshokai.)
This cookbook was extremely popular from the 18th to the 19th century, and if you were marrying into a middle-class family, it would have been a must-have book for every family.
When I found the cookbook, there was a recipe for currant jelly.
(Since it wasn't translated into Japanese, I had to ask a friend to translate it for me.) Thus, I finally decided to recreate the taste that I had dreamed of together with artist L PACK . .
Refining sugar? ! There is a saying that you put your finger into the pot and water to make sure the sugar doesn't caramelize while making adjustments, but what about your finger? ! Isn't a thermometer okay? !
Despite many difficulties in the 18th century, he managed to put currants in the pot.
Complete!
So, how does it taste? !
The resulting ``currant jelly'' was served to everyone at the LPACK breakfast meeting (Note 1) held at the Yokohama Creative City Center (YCC) during the Yokohama Triennale 2014.
Currant jelly making L PACK, Photos and text Erika Kobayashi (c)L PACK Erika Kobayashi
Erika Kobayashi (KOBAYASHI Erika)
Writer/manga artist. His book ``Breakfast with Madame Curie'' (Shueisha) was selected as a candidate for the 27th Yukio Mishima Prize and the 151st Ryunosuke Akutagawa Prize.
Comics about the history of "radioactivity" such as "Children of Light 1" and "Dear Kitty" (both published by Little More), a collection of works "Unforgettable" (Seidosha), etc.
As part of Project UNDARK , they released "Radium Girls 2011" and are active as the unit <kvina> .
Note 1: LPACK's annual project, ``For example, let's say you wake up earlier than usual and eat breakfast.''
