Recipe
Old-Fashioned Mamey Colorado Sweet
Thick sweet made from ripe mamey colorado and sugar, inspired by a Cuban recipe book from 1925 and prepared with only two ingredients.
- Preparation15 min
- Cooking35 min
- Total time1 h 10 min
- Servings6 small servings; approximately 600–650 g of sweet
- DifficultyEasy
Mamey colorado also has its place in Cuban confectionery. In Delicias de la mesa, published in Havana in 1925 by María Antonieta Reyes Gavilán y Moenck, there is a sweet made with sieved pulp and sugar, cooked until the mixture thickens.
This is a domestic adaptation of that preparation: we have fixed the weights and moderated the proportion of sugar. We seek a dense and smooth sweet, to be served with a spoon and retaining the flavor of the mamey. Use well-ripe mamey colorado, with reddish or salmon-colored pulp; yellow mamey or Santo Domingo mamey is a different fruit.
Ingredients
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Method
- Open the ripe mameys, remove the seeds, and extract the pulp with a spoon. Remove the skin and any hard fibers. Weigh 500 g of clean pulp.
Image generated with AI.CiberCuba - Mash the pulp and pass it through a sieve with not too fine a mesh, helping yourself with the back of a spoon, until you obtain a uniform purée. Discard the fibers that remain trapped.
- Place the purée in a thick-bottomed pot, about 18–20 cm in diameter, and mix it with the 250 g of sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to bubble gently.
Image generated with AI.CiberCuba - Lower the heat and continue cooking, stirring with a spatula and scraping the bottom and sides. Calculate between 20 and 35 minutes of total cooking time, depending on the fruit's moisture. Do not add water: the ripe pulp provides what is necessary.
- Check the consistency point: when passing the spatula, the groove must reveal the bottom of the pot for a few seconds. Place a teaspoon on a plate and wait a minute; it should remain thick and smooth, with no liquid around it. If it still spreads too much, cook for a few more minutes.
Image generated with AI.CiberCuba - Remove from heat and transfer the sweet to a heat-resistant dish. Let it cool slightly for about 20 minutes and divide into 6 small servings. You can serve it warm or cover and refrigerate to eat cold.
Image generated with AI.CiberCuba
