Apricots à la Cussy

Apricots à la Cussy (macaroon crowns with poached apricots and white meringue) teaches restraint inside abundance. The one true thing is this: the meringue must dry through and remain white. Colour would make it handsome in the wrong way, burying the clear apricot and almond beneath a toasted flavour the dish never asked for.

The original assumed a pastry station with poached fruit, apricot purée, and meringue ready for assembly. There is no saucier or permanent stockpot to imitate in this sweet, and a salamander would be exactly the wrong tool. For the home table, one saucepan, an ovenproof platter, and a low-moderate oven replace that brigade of prepared components. The quantity becomes eight pieces, while the sequence and proportions remain intact. The brigade's standing supply of components is scaffolding and can go; the macaroon, bound salpicon, poached apricot, white meringue, and separate Kirsch sauce are the dish and all stay.

The salpicon is a fine dice of fruit cohered with apricot purée, not a loose fruit salad. The Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383), the Italian meringue, arrives as a finished preparation from its own entry, exactly as the original intends. Make the fruit and sauce first, then assemble without delay. Watch the meringue, not the clock. Its white, just-dry surface is the step that decides everything.