Pearled Fruit, or Fruit En Chemise

Instructions

1. Select for this dish very fine bunches of red and white currants, large ripe cherries, and gooseberries of different colours, and strawberries or raspberries very freshly gathered.
2. Beat up the white of an egg with about half as much cold water.
3. Dip the fruit into this mixture, drain it on a sieve for an instant, and then roll it in fine sifted sugar until it is covered in every part.
4. Give it a gentle shake, and lay it on sheets of white paper to dry.
5. It will dry gradually in a warm room, or a sunny window, in the course of three or four hours.
6. Acton's note on the method: in England thin gum-water is sometimes used, she believes, for this dish instead of the white of egg; what she gives here is the French method of preparing it.
7. Obs. (Acton): this is an inexpensive dish which, if well prepared, has the appearance of fine confectionary, and the incrustation of sugar much increases the apparent size of the fruit. The sugar used for it should be of the best quality, and fine and dry. When it becomes moist from the fruit being rolled in it, it will no longer adhere to it as it ought.