Fruit fool

{{Short description|English dessert of fruit and custard or cream}} {{Infobox food | name = Fool | image = Raspberry fool.jpg | image_size = 300px | caption = A raspberry fool | alternate_name = Foole | place_of_origin = England | region = | creator = | course = Dessert | served = | main_ingredient = Puréed fruit, whipped cream, sugar | variations = Trifle | calories = | other = }}

A '''fool''' is an English dessert. Traditionally, fruit fool is made by folding puréed stewed fruit (classically gooseberries) into sweet custard. Modern fool recipes often use whipped cream instead of custard. Additionally, a flavouring such as rose water may be added.

== Etymology == The reason the word "fool" is used for this fruit dessert is unclear. Several authors believe it derives from the French verb {{lang|fr|fouler}} meaning "to crush" or "to press" (in the context of pressing grapes for wine).<ref>{{cite book | last=Hibler | first=Janie | title=The Berry Bible | publisher=William Morrow Cookbooks | edition=1st |location=New York, NY | date=2000 | isbn=978-0-06-008548-3 | page=306}}</ref> Food writer Alan Davidson argues that it is 'reasonable to suppose that the idea of mashed fruit was there from the start' but also points out that Norfolk fool, a type of bread pudding, contained no fruit.<ref name=":2" /> This derivation is dismissed by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as baseless and inconsistent with the early use of the word.<ref name=OED/> The name trifle was also originally applied to the dish, with the two names being used, for a time, interchangeably.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART_II/British_Food/British_desserts.html|title= Three British Desserts: Syllabub, Fool and Trifle|access-date= 2010-07-19|work= Article by Diana Serbe|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100513221231/http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART_II/British_Food/British_desserts.html|archive-date= 13 May 2010}}</ref> In the late 16th century, a trifle was 'a dish composed of cream boiled with various ingredients'. Davidson suggests that this is 'also the description one could give of a fool'. In support for this theory, Davidson quotes John Florio from his dictionary of 1598: 'a kinde of clouted cream called a fool or a trifle'.<ref name=":2" />

== History == 'Foole' is first mentioned as a dessert in 1598, a 'kinde of clouted cream called a fool or a trifle',<ref name=OED>{{Cite OED2 |fool |part=sb. |number=2 |volume=VI |page=10 }}</ref> although gooseberry fool may date back to the 15th century.<ref>{{cite book | last=Garmey | first=Jane | title=Great British cooking, a well kept secret | publisher=Random House | publication-place=New York | year=1981 | isbn=978-0-394-50876-4 | oclc=7554549 | page=}}</ref> One early recipe for gooseberry fool dates to the mid-17th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=M |first1=W |title=The Compleat Cook |date=1658 |publisher=Nathaniel Brooke |location=Cornhill, London |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10520 |language=en |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> The soft fruits used in fools in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were often boiled and pulped before being mixed with the cream. It was considered the most 'prudent' way to eat fruit at the time as there was a fear that raw fruit was unhealthy.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Alan |title=The Oxford companion to food |date=2014 |others=Tom Jaine, Soun Vannithone |isbn=978-0-19-967733-7 |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |oclc=890807357}}</ref> Fruit fools and creams, argues food historian C. Anne Wilson, 'succeeded the medieval fruit pottages. They were based on the pulp of cooked fruits beaten together with cream and sugar. Gooseberries, and later orange juice combined with beaten eggs, were made up into fools.'<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> The cream in earlier fools was often unwhipped. The process of whipping cream before forks were adopted in the late 17th century was long and difficult.<ref name=":2" /> The eggs used in many earlier fool recipes became less common, and now most fools are made without them.<ref name=":2" />

== Variations == thumb|Blackberry fool Originally, the most common fruit ingredient in fools was gooseberries, although other fruits and berries are known from early recipes, e.g., apples, strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries. Modern recipes may include any seasonal fruit readily found.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-02 |title=How to make fruit fool – recipe {{!}} Felicity Cloake's masterclass |url=http://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jun/02/how-to-make-fruit-fool-recipe-felicity-cloake-masterclass |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> In Anglo-Indian cuisine, mango fool is a popular variation.<ref name="k722">{{cite book | last=Wester | first=P. J. |author-link=Peter Jansen Wester |edition=2nd Revised | title=The mango | publisher=Bureau of Printing | publication-place=Manila | year=1920 | oclc=1601630 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kbfNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA57 | page=57}}</ref>

'''Norfolk fool'''<ref>{{cite book |last1=May |first1=Robert |title=The accomplisht cook |date=1685 |publisher=Obadiah Blagrave |location=London |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22790 |language=en |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> is an old local variation of the fruit fool, often containing minimal or no fruit.<ref name=":2" /> It is seasoned with spices, such as mace and cinnamon, and thickened with eggs and boiled.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Norfolk Fool |url=https://www.foodsofengland.info/NorfolkFool.html |website=Foods of England Project |access-date=21 April 2025 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=C. Anne |title=Food & drink in Britain : from the Stone Age to recent times |date=1973 |publisher=Constable |isbn=0-09-456040-4 |location=London |oclc=859209}}</ref>

An early recipe can be found in ''The Accomplisht Cook'' by Robert May:

{{quote|To make a Norfolk Fool. Take a quart of good thick sweet cream, and set it a boiling in a clean scoured skillet, with some large mace and whole cinnamon; then having boil'd a warm or two take the yolks of five or six eggs dissolved and put to it, being taken from the fire, then take out the cinnamon and mace; the cream being pretty thick, slice a fine manchet into thin slices, as much as will cover the bottom of the dish, pour on the cream on them, and more bread, some two or three times till the dish be full, then trim the dish side with fine carved sippets, and stick it with slic't dates, scrape on sugar, and cast on red and white biskets.<ref name=":0" />}}

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category-inline|Fool (dessert)}}

Category:British desserts Category:English cuisine Category:Custard desserts Category:Fruit desserts