On a recent hike I noticed that the bushes around me were teeming with the fuzzy red buds of soon-to-be wineberries. I came back and gathered as much as I had the patience for in humid Maryland July weather.
I love to blather on about my childhood days spent gathering, preserving and baking blackberries but those days are indeed gone. The invasive wineberry is now berry queen of mainland Maryland field and forest.
The upside of that is that wineberries are delicious, and that I don’t feel much guilt about tackling their thorny branches, plundering the generous sweet raspberry-like fruits to my hearts content.
The recipe for Raspberry Fool is printed in the “Maryland’s Way” cookbook from a book belonging to Hammond-Harwood house resident Mrs. F.T. Loockerman. The famous Annapolis house was bought for Frances Townley (married name Loockerman) by her father, Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase.
F.T. Loockerman miniature, Robert Field 1803.
The English origin of this dessert is perhaps obvious from its name. If it’s a ‘fool’, a ‘trifle’, or a ‘mess’ then you can safely assume Old World origin.
Many old dessert and beverage recipes tend to call for raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and sometimes blueberries interchangeably.
Although the recipe instructs it to be served with ‘wafers’, my use of vanilla wafers was probably less appropriate for the period.
Modern vanilla wafers would more likely be known as some kind of “little cake,” and “wafers” or biscuits could mean something such as the popular Naples Biscuit, or a dainty wafer made in a press, much like a waffle cone.
This made a refreshing summer snack, wafer scandal notwithstanding. I’ll bet “wafer scandal” is probably some type of British dessert…
Recipe:
- 2 Cups wineberries or other berry
- .5 Cup sugar
- .5 Pint whipping cream
Clean and dry berries, add sugar and let stand to extract juice. Mash berries slightly, put in a pot and bring slowly to a boil. Cook until soft, strain through a sieve and chill. When the juice is cold, whip the cream and add the fruit to it. Refrigerate or freeze for at least two hours before serving.
“Any other fruit may be used for a Fool. Serve with wafers or sweet biscuits.”
Adapted from “Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook”
