Put into a double boiler with one cup of water for each five pounds of
fruit, and cook until softened. Express the juice, and proceed as with
other jellies, allowing three fourths of a pound of sugar to each pint
of juice. Tart or sweet apples may be used with quinces, in equal
proportions, and make a jelly of more pleasant flavor than quinces used
alone. The seeds of quinces contain considerable gelatinous substance,
and should be cooked with the quince for jelly making.
PLUM JELLY.--Use Damsons or Green Gages. Stone, and make in the
same way as for berry and other small fruit jellies.
FRUIT IN JELLY.--Prepare some apple jelly without sugar. When
boiled sufficiently to form, add to it, as it begins to cool, some nice,
stoned dates or seeded raisins. Orange jelly may be used instead of the
apple jelly, if preferred.
FRUIT JUICES.
As sauces for desserts and for summer beverages for sick or well, the
pure juices of fruits are most wholesome and delicious. So useful are
they and so little trouble to prepare, that no housewife should allow
the fruit season to pass by without putting up a full stock.
Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, grapes, and cherries
are especially desirable. In preparing them, select only the best fruit,
ripe, but not over-ripe. Extract the juice by mashing the fruit and
slowly heating in the inner cup of a double boiler, till the fruit is
well scalded; too long heating will injure its color. Strain through a
jelly bag and let it drain slowly for a long time, but do not squeeze,
else some of the pulp will be forced through. Reheat slowly to boiling
and can the same as fruit. It may be put up with or without sugar. If
sugar is to be used, add it hot as for jelly, after the juice is
strained and reheated to boiling. For strawberries and currants,
raspberries and cherries, use one cup of sugar to a quart of juice.
Black raspberries and grapes require less sugar, while blueberries and
blackberries require none at all, or not more than a tablespoonful to
the quart. A mixed juice, of one part currants and two parts red or
black raspberries, has a very superior flavor.
_RECIPES._
GRAPE JUICE, OR UNFERMENTED WINE.--Take twenty-five pounds of some
well ripened very juicy variety of grapes, like the Concord. Pick them
from the stems, wash thoroughly, and scald without the addition of
water, in double boilers until the grapes burst open; cool, turn into
stout jelly bags, and drain off the juice without squeezing. Let the
juice stand and settle; turn off the top, leaving any sediment there may
be. Add to the juice about four pounds of best granulated sugar, reheat
to boiling, skim carefully, and can the same as fruit. Keep in a cool,
dark place. The wine, if to be sealed in bottles, will require a corker,
and the corks should first be boiled in hot water and the bottles well
sterilized.
GRAPE JUICE NO. 2.--Take grapes of the best quality, picked fresh
from the vines. Wash well after stripping from the stems, rejecting any
imperfect fruit. Put them in a porcelain or granite fruit kettle with
one pint of water to every three quarts of grapes, heat to boiling, and
cook slowly for fifteen minutes or longer, skimming as needed. Turn off
the juice and carefully filter it through a jelly bag, putting the seeds
and skins into a separate bag to drain, as the juice from them will be
less clear. Heat again to boiling, add one cupful of hot sugar to each
quart of juice, and seal in sterilized cans or bottles. The juice from
the skins and seeds should be canned separately.
ANOTHER METHOD.--Wash the grapes, and express the juice without
scalding the fruit. Strain the juice three or four times through muslin
or cheese cloth, allowing it to stand and settle for some time between
each filtering. To every three pints of juice add one of water and two
cupfuls of sugar. Heat to boiling, and keep at that temperature for
fifteen minutes, skim carefully, and bottle while at boiling heat. Set
away in a cool, dark place.
FRUIT SYRUP.--Prepare the juice expressed from strawberries,
raspberries, currants, or grapes, as directed above for fruit juices.
After it has come to a boil, add one pound of sugar to every quart of
juice. Seal in pint cans. It may be diluted with water to form a
pleasing beverage, and is especially useful in flavoring puddings and
sauces.
CURRANT SYRUP.--Boil together a pint of pure currant juice and one
half pound of best white sugar for ten minutes, and can or bottle while
at boiling temperature. One or two spoonfuls of the syrup in a glass of
water makes a most refreshing drink. Two parts currants and one of red
raspberries may be used in place of all currants, if preferred.
ORANGE SYRUP.--Select ripe and thin-skinned fruit. To every pint of
the juice add one pound of sugar, the juice of one lemon, and a little
of the grated rind. Boil for fifteen minutes, removing all scum as it
rises. If the syrup is not clear, strain through a piece of cheese
cloth, and reheat. Can and seal while boiling hot.
LEMON SYRUP.--Grate the yellow portion of the rind of six lemons,
and mix with three pounds of best granulated white sugar. Add one quart
of water and boil until it thickens. Strain, add the juice of the six
lemons, carefully leaving out the pulp and seeds; boil ten minutes, and
bottle. Diluted with two thirds cold water, it forms a delicious and
quickly prepared lemonade.
LEMON SYRUP NO. 2.--To every pint of lemon juice add one pound of
sugar; boil, skim, and seal in cans like fruit.
BLACKBERRY SYRUP.--Crush fresh, well-ripened blackberries, and add
to them one fourth as much boiling water as berries; let them stand for
twenty-four hours, stirring frequently. Strain, add a cup of sugar to
each quart of juice, boil slowly for fifteen minutes, and can.
FRUIT ICES.--Express the juice from a pint of stoned red cherries,
add the juice of two lemons, one cup of sugar and a quart of cold water.
Stir well for five minutes, an freeze in an ice cream freezer. Equal
parts currant and red raspberry juice may be used instead of cherry, if
preferred.
DRYING FRUIT.
This method of preserving fruit, except in large establishments where it
is dried by steam, is but little used, since canning is quicker and
superior in every way. Success in drying fruits is dependent upon the
quickness with which, they can be dried, without subjecting them to so
violent a heat as to burn them or injure their flavor.
Pulpy fruits, such as berries, cherries, plums, etc., should be spread
on some convenient flat surface without contact with each other, and
dried in the sun under glass, or in a moderate oven. They should be
turned daily. They will dry more quickly if first scalded in a hot oven.
Cherries should be first stoned and cooked until well heated through and
tender, then spread on plates, and the juice (boiled down to a syrup)
poured over them. When dried, they will be moist. Pack in jars. Large
fruit, such as apples, pears, and peaches, should be pared, divided, and
the seeds or stones removed. If one has but a small quantity, the best
plan is to dry by mean of artificial heat; setting it first in a hot
oven until heated through, which process starts the juice and forms a
film or crust over the cut surfaces, thus holding the remaining:
quantity of juice inside until it becomes absorbed in the tissues. The
drying process may be finished in a warming oven or some place about the
range where the fruit will get only moderate heat. If a larger quantity
of fruit is to be dried, after being heated in the oven, it may be
placed in the hot sun out of doors, under fine wire screens, to keep off
the flies; or may be suspended for the ceiling in some way, or placed
upon a frame made to stand directly over the stove. As the drying
proceeds, the fruit should be turned occasionally, and when dry enough,
it should be thoroughly heated before it is packed away, to prevent it
from getting wormy.
NUTS.
The nuts, or shell fruits, as they are sometimes termed, form a class of
food differing greatly from the succulent fruits. They are more properly
seeds, containing, in general, no starch, but are rich in fat and
nitrogenous elements in the form of vegetable albumen and casein. In
composition, the nuts rank high in nutritive value, but owing to the
oily matter which they contain, are difficult of digestion, unless
reduced to a very minutely divided state before or during mastication.
The fat of nuts is similar in character to cream, and needs to be
reduced to the consistency of cream to be easily digested. Those nuts,
such as almonds, filberts, and pecans, which do not contain an excess of
fat, are the most wholesome. Nuts should be eaten, in moderation, at the
regular mealtime, and not partaken of as a tidbit between meals. It is
likewise well to eat them in connection with some hard food, to insure
their thorough mastication. Almonds and cream crisps thus used make a
pleasing combination.
Most of the edible nuts have long been known and used as food. The
_Almond_ was highly esteemed by the ancient nations of the East, its
native habitat, and is frequently referred to in sacred history. It is
grown extensively in the warm, temperate regions of the Old World. There
are two varieties, known as the bitter and the sweet almond. The kernel
of the almond yields a fixed oil; that produced from the bitter almond
is much esteemed for flavoring purposes, but it is by no means a safe
article to use, at it possesses marked poisonous qualities. Fresh, sweet
almonds are a nutritive, and, when properly eaten, wholesome food. The
outer brown skin of the kernel is somewhat bitter, rough, and irritating
to the stomach but it can be easily removed by blanching.
Blanched almonds, if baked for a short time, become quite brittle, and
may be easily pulverized, and are then more easily digested. Bread made
from almonds thus baked and pulverized, is considered an excellent food
for persons suffering with diabetes.
_Brazil Nuts_ are the seeds of a gigantic tree which grows wild in the
valleys of the Amazon, and throughout tropical America. The case
containing these seeds is a hard, woody shell, globular in form, and
about the size of a man's head. It is divided into four cells, in each
of which are closely packed the seeds which constitute the so-called
nuts, of commerce. These seeds are exceedingly rich in oil, one pound of
them producing about nine ounces of oil.
The _Cocoanut_ is perhaps the most important of all the shell fruits, if
we may judge by the variety of uses to which the nut and the tree which
bears it can be put. It has been said that nature seldom produces a tree
so variously useful to man as the cocoanut palm. In tropical countries,
where it grows abundantly, its leaves are employed for thatching, its
fibers for manufacturing many useful articles, while its ashes produce
potash in abundance. The fruit is eaten raw, and in many ways is
prepared for food; it also yields an oil which forms an important
article of commerce. The milk of the fruit is a cooling beverage, and
the woody shell of the nut answers very well for a cup from which to
drink it. The saccharine juice of the tree also affords an excellent
drink; and from the fresh young stems is prepared a farinaceous
substance similar to sago.
The cocoanuts grow in clusters drooping from the tuft of long, fringed
leaves which crown the branchless trunk of the stately palm. The
cocoanut as found in commerce is the nut divested of its outer sheath,
and is much smaller in size than when seen upon the tree. Picked fresh
from the tree, the cocoanut consists first of a green outer covering;
next of a fibrous coat, which, if the nut is mature, is hairy-like in
appearance; and then of the woody shell, inside of which is the meat and
milk. For household purposes the nuts are gathered while green, and
before the inner shell has become solidified; the flesh is then soft
like custard, and can be easily eaten with a teaspoon, while a large
quantity of delicious, milk-like fluid is obtainable from each nut.
As found in our Northern markets, the cocoanut is difficult of
digestion, as is likewise the prepared or desiccated cocoanut. The
cocoanut contains about seventy per cent of oil.
The _Chestnut_ is an exception to most nuts in its composition. It
contains starch, and about fifteen per cent of sugar. No oil can be
extracted from the chestnut. In Italy, and other parts of Southern
Europe, the chestnut forms an important article of food. It is sometimes
dried and ground into flour, from which bread is prepared. The chestnut
is a nutritious food, but owing to the starch it contains, is more
digestible when cooked. The same is true of the _Acorn_, which is
similar in character to the chestnut. In the early ages, acorns were
largely used for food, and are still used as a substitute for bread in
some countries.
The _Hazelnut_, with the _Filbert_ and _Cobnut_, varieties of the same
nut obtained by cultivation, are among the most desirable nuts for
general consumption.
The _Walnut_, probably a native of Persia, where in ancient times it was
so highly valued as to be considered suited only for the table of the
king, is now found very commonly with other species of the same family,
the _Butternut_ and _Hickory nut_, in most temperate climates.
The _Pecan_, a nut allied to the hickory nut, and grown extensively in
the Mississippi Valley and Texas, is one of the most easily digested
nuts.
The _Peanut_ or _Groundnut_ is the seed of an annual, cultivated
extensively in most tropical and sub-tropical countries. After the plant
has blossomed, the stalk which produced the flower has the peculiarity
of bending down and forcing itself under ground so that the seeds mature
some depth beneath the surface. When ripened, the pods containing the
seeds are dug up and dried. In tropical countries the fresh nuts are
largely consumed, and are thought greatly to resemble almonds in flavor.
In this country they are more commonly roasted. They are less easily
digested than many other nuts because of the large amount of oily matter
which they contain.
_RECIPES._
TO BLANCH ALMONDS.--Shell fresh, sweet almonds, and pour boiling
water over them; let them stand for two or three minutes, skim out, and
drop into cold water. Press between the thumb and finger, and the
kernels will readily slip out of the brown covering. Dry between clean
towels. Blanched almonds served with raisins make an excellent dessert.
BOILED CHESTNUTS.--The large variety, knows as the Italian
chestnut, is best for this purpose. Remove the shells, drop into boiling
water, and boil for ten minutes, take out, drop into cold water, and rub
off the brown skin. Have some clean water boiling, turn the blanched
nuts into it, and cook until they can be pierced with a fork. Drain
thoroughly, put into a hot dish, dry in the oven for a few minutes, and
serve. A cream sauce or tomato sauce may be served with them if liked.
MASHED CHESTNUTS.--Prepare and boil the chestnuts as in the
preceding recipe. When tender, mash through a colander with a potato
masher. Season with cream and salt if desired. Serve hot.
TO KEEP NUTS FRESH.--Chestnuts and other thin-shelled nuts may be
kept from becoming too dry by mixing with an equal bulk of dry sand and
storing in a box or barrel in some cool place.
TABLE TOPICS.
Who lives to eat, will die by eating.--_Sel._
Fruit bears the closest relation to light. The sun pours a
continuous flood of light into the fruits, and they furnish the best
portion of food a human being requires for the sustenance of mind
and body.--_Alcott._
The famous Dr. John Hunter, one of the most eminent physicians of
his time, and himself a sufferer from gout, found in apples a remedy
for this very obstinate and distressing malady. He insisted that all
of his patients should discard wine and roast beef, and make a free
use of apples.
Do not too much for your stomach, or it will abandon you.--_Sel._
The purest food is fruit, next the cereals, then the vegetables. All
pure poets have abstained almost entirely from animal food.
Especially should a minister take less meat when he has to write a
sermon. The less meat the better sermon.--_A. Bronson Alcott._
There is much false economy: those who are too poor to have
seasonable fruits and vegetables, will yet have pie and pickles all
the year. They cannot afford oranges, yet can afford tea and coffee
daily.--_Health Calendar._
What plant we in the apple tree?
Fruits that shall dwell in sunny June,
And redden in the August moon,
And drop, when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky,
While children come, with cries of glee,
And seek there when the fragrant grass
Betrays their bed to those who pass
At the foot of the apple tree.
--_Bryant._
LEGUMES
The legumes, to which belong peas, beans, and lentils, are usually
classed among vegetables; but in composition they differ greatly from
all other vegetable foods, being characterized by a very large
percentage of the nitrogenous elements, by virtue of which they possess
the highest nutritive value. Indeed, when mature, they contain a larger
proportion of nitrogenous matter than any other food, either animal or
vegetable. In their immature state, they more nearly resemble the
vegetables. On account of the excess of nitrogenous elements in their
composition, the mature legumes are well adapted to serve as a
substitute for animal foods, and for use in association with articles in
which starch or other non-nitrogenous elements are predominant; as, for
example, beans or lentils with rice, which combinations constitute the
staple food of large populations in India.
The nitrogenous matter of legumes is termed _legumin_, or vegetable
casein, and its resemblance to the animal casein of milk is very marked.
The Chinese make use of this fact, and manufacture cheese from peas and
beans. The legumes were largely used as food by the ancient nations of
the East. They were the "pulse" upon which the Hebrew children grew so
fair and strong. According to Josephus, legumes also formed the chief
diet of the builders of the pyramids. They are particularly valuable as
strength producers, and frequently form a considerable portion of the
diet of persons in training as athletes, at the present day. Being foods
possessed of such high nutritive value, the legumes are deserving of a
more extended use than is generally accorded them in this country. In
their mature state they are, with the exception of beans, seldom found
upon the ordinary bill of fare, and beans are too generally served in a
form quite difficult of digestion, being combined with large quantities
of fat, or otherwise improperly prepared. Peas and lentils are in some
respects superior to beans, being less liable to disagree with persons
of weak digestion, and for this reason better suited to form a staple
article of diet.
All the legumes are covered with a tough skin, which is in itself
indigestible, and which if not broken by the cooking process or by
thorough mastication afterward, renders the entire seed liable to pass
through the digestive tract undigested, since the digestive fluids
cannot act upon the hard skin. Even when the skins are broken, if served
with the pulp, much of the nutritive material of the legume is wasted,
because it is impossible for the digestive processes to free it from the
cellulose material of which the skins are composed. If, then, it be
desirable to obtain from the legumes the largest amount of nutriment and
in the most digestible form, they must be prepared in some manner so as
to reject the skins. Persons unable to use the legumes when cooked in
the ordinary way, usually experience no difficulty whatever in digesting
them when divested of their skins. The hindrance which even the
partially broken skins are to the complete digestion of the legume, is
well illustrated by the personal experiments of Prof. Strümpell, a
German scientist, who found that of beans boiled with the skins on he
was able to digest only 60 per cent of the nitrogenous material they
contained. When, however, he reduced the same quantity of beans to a
fine powder previous to cooking, he was enabled to digest 91.8 per cent
of it.
The fact that the mature legumes are more digestible when prepared in
some manner in which the skins are rejected, was doubtless understood in
early times, for we find in a recipe of the fourteenth century,
directions given "to dry legumes in an oven and remove the skins away
before using them."
The green legumes which are more like a succulent vegetable are easily
digested with the skins on, if the hulls are broken before being
swallowed. There are also some kinds of beans which, in their mature
state, from having thinner skins, are more readily digested, as the
Haricot variety.
SUGGESTIONS FOR COOKING.--The legumes are best cooked by stewing or
boiling, and when mature, require prolonged cooking to render them
tender and digestible. Slow cooking, when practicable, is preferable.
Dry beans and peas are more readily softened by cooking if first soaked
for a time in cold water. The soaking also has a tendency to loosen the
skins, so that when boiled or stewed, a considerable portion of them
slip off whole, and being lighter, rise to the top during the cooking,
and can be removed with a spoon; it likewise aids in removing the strong
flavor characteristic of these foods, which is considered objectionable
by some persons. The length of time required for soaking will depend
upon the age of the seed, those from the last harvest needing only a few
hours, while such as have been kept for two or more years require to be
soaked twelve or twenty-four hours. For cooking, soft water is best. The
mineral elements in hard water have a tendency to harden the casein, of
which the legumes a largely composed, thus rendering it often very
difficult to soften them.
The dry, unsoaked legumes are generally best put to cook in cold water,
and after the boiling point is reached, allowed to simmer gently until
done. Boiling water may be used for legumes which have been previously
soaked. The amount of water required will vary somewhat with the heat
employed and the age and condition of the legume, as will also the time
required for cooking, but as a general rule two quarts of soft water
for one pint of seeds will be quite sufficient. Salt should not be added
until the seeds are nearly done, as it hinders the cooking process.
PEAS.
DESCRIPTION.--The common garden pea is probably a native of
countries bordering on the Black Sea. A variety known as the gray pea
(_pois chiche_) has been used since a very remote period. The common
people of Greece and Rome, in ancient times made it an ordinary article
of diet. It is said that peas were considered such a delicacy by the
Romans that those who coveted public favor distributed them gratuitously
to the people in order to buy votes.
Peas were introduced into England from Holland in the time of Elizabeth,
and were then considered a great delicacy. History tells us that when
the queen was released from her confinement in the tower, May 19, 1554,
she went to Staining to perform her devotions in the church of
Allhallows, after which she dined at a neighboring inn upon a meal of
which the principal dish was boiled peas. A dinner of the same kind,
commemorative of the event, was for a long time given annually at the
same tavern.
Peas, when young, are tender and sweet, containing a considerable
quantity of sugar. The nitrogenous matter entering into their
composition, although less in quantity when unripe, is much more easily
digested than when the seeds are mature.
When quite ripe, like other leguminous seeds, they require long cooking.
When very old, no amount of boiling will soften them. When green, peas
are usually cooked and served as a vegetable; in their dried state, they
are put to almost every variety of use in the different countries where
they are cultivated.
In the southeast of Scotland, a favorite food is made of ground peas
prepared in thick cakes and called peas-bainocks.
In India and southern Europe, a variety of the pea is eaten parched or
lightly roasted, or made into cakes, puddings, and sweetmeats. In
Germany, in combination with other ingredients, peas are compounded into
sausages, which, during the Franco-Prussian war, served as rations for
the soldiers.