Plumi moos is like a cold fruit soup. If I remember correctly, my foster mother would make moos every Sunday morning before church so that we could eat it with Sunday lunch. When I was really young, a story went around the kitchen table.
Legend has it, an Owla Momcha (old lady) was making cold fruit soup one day for her beloved family who would be working in the fields all day. Now, she would start boiling the fruit first thing in the morning, before the sun even came up, so that she could set it in the cold storage so that it would be cooled down for faspa time. Normally she went into the cellar with a candle, but on this day she figured that she had been down there so often, that she knew the way around the cellar like the back of her hand, so she didn’t bother grabbing a candle. She grabbed a bowl and a scoop and made her way down to the cellar to get dry fruit for the cold soup. Unbeknownst to her, a gluttonous mouse had chewed a hole in the sack of fruit the night before and had died freighting (pigging out) on delicious dried fruits. So while Owla Momcha had blindly scooped up some dried fruit for her soup, she also scooped up the mouse that had eaten like a shviene (pig). She then went to her dimly lit kitchen, dumped the fruit (and the mouse) into a pot, and started cooking up some fruit soup. The rest of the day played out as usual. Her family came inside for faspa like they did every day. The first to get served was her husband, and she dished out the biggest bowl of soup, just for him, knowing that da kingya deserved dat nicht. The husband was so hungry from being in the field all day, so he dove right in. He scooped up a big spoonful of the fruit soup and shoved it into his mouth. Just before he started chewing, he realized that what was in his mouth was not fruit at all, but a mouse! And ever since then, people have been calling this dish moos (mouse). that is how this dish got it’s name.
Being told that story at a very young age, every Sunday when my foster mother would make moos, I would very diligently look through my soup before eating it.
Although there are many different variations of moos, this is the recipe for Plumi Moos that my foster mother used to make.
You will need: 10 cups of water, 1-12 oz package of dried mixed fruit (I couldn’t find a bag of mixed fruit, so I used 12 oz of dried prunes and dried apricots), 1/2 a cup of raisins, 1/2 a cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of cornstarch
Put the dried fruits and water in a pot and cook until the fruit is very soft.
Make a paste from the sugar, cornstarch and a little bit of water and add it to the fruit mixture.
Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.
Let the moos cool down completely.
Serve and enjoy!
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- 10 cups Water
- 1 - 12 oz pkg Dried Mixed Fruit
- 1/2 cup Raisins
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Cornstarch
- Put the dried fruits and water in a pot and cook until the fruit is very soft.
- Make a paste from the sugar, cornstarch and a little bit of water and add it to the fruit mixture.
- Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.
- Let the moos cool down completely.
- Serve and enjoy!
My Grandmother made this soup for us kids, and like your story she used to tease us that the cherries were mouse heads, her version was a hot soup with cherries, saskatoons, raisons……pretty much anything she had in the house…. but hers had a cream added at the end of simmering. Good memories thanks for sharing
danka shein, schmack zia gout
Hello, the Mennonite word moos relates to English mousse, and the Dutch and Afrikaans words moes and mos, and originates from Low Dutch and possibly old Saxon. In all forms but the English, it is a mashed fruit such as berries, plums, grapes, guava and quinces that are used as is. They can also be left to drain a bit and then rolled up into flat sheets and eaten as a fruit roll snack.
That is very interesting! Thanks for sharing that!
That is such a funny story – typical of Mennonite humour in my opinion!!
Thanks for posting the story and recipe,.
Yummy!~ My late mother used to make this … although she added extra cherries which was such a treat 🙂
I learned about Plumimoos eaten with cream of wheat served with or under it. The cream of wheat had a name like Mannegrits, but I am not finding that anywhere online — does anyone know the spelling of that?
My mom died of cancer four years ago, before she got to write down her recipes for me. This blog is so much to me. I can find so many recipes I haven’t eaten in years, foods I have forgotten about. Most excited to make this! Everyone hates it but it was my favorite, i ate it while it was still hot tho!