Fruit recipes : a manual of the food value of fruits and nine hundred different ways of using them

Front matter

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Preface

Daniel had good reason for his famous and witty afterdinner speech when he remarked to the lions, "After you, gentlemen, after you!" On the same principle prefaces are often postponed. But I hope that you will read this one before dining, that you may understand why such an anomaly as both a discussion of the food values of fruits and formulas for the practical preparation of fruit dishes should be offered men as well as women.

Whatever mental attitude one may hold in relation ta foods, whether one makes meat the chief article of diet or ex^ eludes it, or follows a middle course, one uses fruit as one does water: possibly as a luxury, possibly only because other people use it, but always to some degree (unless one be an Esquimau beyond even the reach of courageous Arctic berries), and always, just as surely, in lesser degree and with less appreciation of its real value than one should use it.

Difference of age, of climate, of occupation, or constitution make variation of kind and quantity of foods a necessity, but, generally speaking — leaving out discussion of the three types of necessary food elements: protein, or nitrogen, the carbohydrates (including sugar and starches), and fat — all this aside, it is agreed that human beings as a class need more of the potash salts than they ordinarily realise or take into their systems. The lack of proper proportion of these salts lays the foundation for many troubles, in simple and complicated form, which, however, may be avoided by the substitution or inclusion of more fruit

vii viii FRUIT RECIPES

foods, for vegetables and fruits contain these necessary salts in abundance. (See Note.)

Fruit juices furnish the most delightful form of pure water, which is too apt to be considered, in the words of the Southern colonel, "good fuh pupposes of navigation, but a mighty po' drink.' ' The fruit form of acids is refreshing; it speedily furnishes energy to the muscular system — the sugar being readily assimilated — and in general or directly (as with the tropical papaw and pineapple) assists digestion. Each fruit has a special and some of the general values; some of them meant only as accessories to other foods, as a rule stimulants and purifiers, containing chiefly the carbohydrates, and must be balanced by fats, nitrogen, or protein, and foods containing more cellulose. Some fruits require very little * 'balancing/' being substantial and nearly perfect in themselves, as figs, prunes, and the cocoanut, which last, when fresh, should be ranked rather with fruits than nuts. The banana is a substantial food, very rich in carbohydrates and "body"; so also the persimmon. Grapes are nearly perfect from a general point of view and the apple is unique in rank.

Acid fruits are not always to be recommended in combination with starchy foods, and too much acid may be used, but all people are not constituted alike: uncooked fruits may or may not agree with one (though in general fruits are best and more direct in effect uncooked and, whether fresh or cooked, should be eaten with less sugar than is the usual habit) and special fruits or combinations may be found undesirable. Some human beings need food oftener than others or in greater quantity. Some need to be reduced in flesh or the reverse. No hard and fast rules can be laid down; each one should realise the value of fruits as a whole and of fruits individually and should as thoroughly know his own needs.

PREFACE

IX

Facts concerning the values of fruits have been widely scattered, hidden behind masses of figures or buried in scientific works. Figures and scientific terms are necessary in their places, but those included here are only as matters of reference. To be vitally interested is the first requisite for learning "more and more." Everyone has not the gift for remembering figures and names, and to be so burdened is often to stop one at the outset or detract seriously from interest.

Many foundation recipes are included and explanations, because this collection is meant quite as much for men who are "batching it" (perhaps having their first experiences in cooking where strange fruits have to be dealt with) as for women who rightly believe variety to be the spice of life ; and I have given as far as possible just what I myself would many times have valued could someone have saved my having to hunt through a great many volumes for all I wished to know concerning the preparation of some particular fruit, or for some general formula which each book usually takes for granted one already knows in exact proportion.

I have included also a few old-time recipes because of their great interest, from their age, to this generation, or the superior results to be obtained from their use. The housekeeping of earlier centuries seems elaborate and heavy by contrast with the lighter, modern methods, but life as a whole was simpler then than now and in attempting to improve upon the old-fashioned ways we have dropped a little too much, for there were certain quaint touches of housewifely care which exercised untold charm in many directions. Were the old-time still-rooms in vogue to-day, with their fragrant atmosphere of aromatic herbs, fruitcordials, brandies, and wines, patent medicines would find few victims; the murderously adulterated liquors of x FRUIT RECIPES

foreign and domestic markets so generally used as mild tonics as well as stimulants, would not be countenanced or would be rated at their real standing and money value from strict analysis. Fruits have medicinal or tonic value which in cordials "go to exactly the right spot"; the old fruit brandies were used for flavouring, and were far superior to the average, adulterated or cheap, weak stuffs we have to buy to-day and which as a matter of course include alcohol.

As authorities I have consulted Haig's " Diet and Foods"; Burnett's "Foods and Dietaries"; Holbrooks's "Food and Work" ; Williams's "Chemistry of Cookery" ; Fownes's "Manual of Chemistry"; Remington's "Practice of Pharmacy"; the Dispensatory of the U. S. (Wood and Bache), the encyclopedias, American, Britannica, and Chambers's; Gray's Botany; Helen Harcourt's "Florida Fruits and How to Raise Them"; Country Life in America, Table Talk, What to Eat, Harper's Bazar, The Delineator, the New England and all other of the leading periodicals pertaining to the table and to health, and dozens of "cook books." Most of my recipes, however, are original or long since adopted and adapted by family habit or traditions of cooking of friends — Scotch, English, German, and American (to whom I am much indebted), but endless consultation and comparison for years has resulted in agreeing with Solomon that, with national or individual exceptions, change of name, or proportion of ingredient, "there is no new thing under the sun."

I wish also to express my thanks to Dr. Wiley, chief chemist of the Agricultural Department, and to William A. Taylor, H. E. Van Deman, G. B. Brackett, H. Harold Hume, P. H. Rolfs, H. J. Webber, W. T. Swingle, R. B. Handy, W. H. Evans, ML E. Jaffa, W. 0. Atwater, Fred V. Colville, and Deborah G. Passmore of this greatest of the

PREFACE xi

government departments as well as to the Department in general. Such work, scientific, practical, and artistic, cannot be overestimated, whether one is little or much dependent upon it; for the results of these investigations reach people who might never be reached in any other way and yet influence those who have every other opportunity and scientific authority at hand, helping to simplify everyday affairs; and we must — men and women — live with eyes open to the practical power of the products of the earth if we expect to live the sweetest, the simplest, and so, the fullest lives.

R. M. Fletcher Berry.

Note: Bicarbonate of potash in proportion of "about an eggspoonful to a pound of ripe fruit, rather more in the case of unripe fruits" — (Burnett) is now given patients of gouty and other types of cases with fruit — even with lemons and tartest gooseberries — that they may have fruit-diet, although until very recently it was supposed they must be denied fruit.

Contents

PAGE

Weights and Measures . xix

CHAPTER

CHAPTER I THE APPLE (Ma/us mains: Malacca)

THE apple is of all fruits the most entirely taken for granted. It has become as much a matter of course as the universe itself and just as naturally stands at the head of the fruits as does the sun among the heavenly bodies (of familiar, " speaking" aquaintance). And, as its first letter gives it front rank in the alphabet and primers so has the name of apple appealed first — foremost — to the imaginations of men and the fruit to their palates from the time of the earliest relation (not to say actual occurrence!) of the story of Adam and Eve. Otherwise, why the apple instead of some one of the numerous delicious and more delicate southern fruits? It is substantial, firm, yet gracious and sunny; eminently practical; thus one may say, fitted in every way to stand the wear and tear of the ages. In poetry, folk-lore, and even history, no fruit has been more often referred to ; its beauty and wholesomeness more constantly eulogised; standing out as the type of pomological excellence. Men it is who chiefly have written poetry and history, however divided their responsibility in the creation of beauty and facts, and men, like the apple, are eminently practical. Yet are men's hearts and minds not always won through the gastronomic channel or the appeal of the practical. The wild crab, supposed to be the earliest type of apple, lacked as a fruit some of the excellence of evolution, but there is yet, in these later ages, no flower, wild or cultivated, which can rival the wild crab-apple blossom in rare fragrance and delicacy of beauty ; none which even approaches its magical perfume and charm save the sweet olive (plea fragtans). It is sufficient in its marvellous witchery to captivate and inspire rhapsody in the most practical — in even unimaginative, primeval man. And so, to its possession of unusual virtues and beauty has been added (happily, save in the instance of Adam) the appreciation of men; therefore the preeminence of the apple.

This first of fruits is known in Arabia and other southern countries but is essentially a product of the colder, more bracing climes; one fitted by its combination of refreshing acids, substantial bulk and stimulating juice, its possibilities in natural or (whether cooked or dried) preserved state, as food or drink, to give in such latitudes just that degree of comfort to man's physical organism, material for the playful exercise of the intellect and innocent revel of the aesthetic senses which are required for complete human enjoyment. It is concentrated power which may be applied toward the establishment and preservation of health; a dynamo possessing and giving out in its flavour, texture, and its action upon the body that vigorous poise necessary to offset any possible ill effects from long continued seasons of cold, when the earth rests and humanity is prone to become careless and let the blood and liver grow sluggish.

The juice of the apple combines extremes; the sparkle of sunshine and the sparkle of frost- time, the sun's glow laughing out in the working warmth of winter cider, the frost-touch cooling the blood in the seasons of the sun. Joel Benton claimed that "the apple bears a very pertinent relation to the brain, stimulating life and activity, which it does by its immense endowment of phosphorus, in which element it is said to be richer than anything in the vegetable kingdom." Even though the value or proportion of phosphorus, whether in apples or fish, is now considered no greater than that of other food elements ; this is an interesting statement as proving the earlier, generally accepted wholesomeness of apples and as a reminder that in former days men of marked mental achievement prized and placed first in their fruit affections and habits of eating, the apple, publicly proclaiming and protesting their admiration for it. And one who nowadays has even occasionally felt the stimulation and refreshment of this fruit can well believe that a comparatively steady diet of it might prove conducive to brain activity and general well being. To-day, through improved methods of cultivation and better shipping facilities, we have more kinds of foods fresh, canned, or concocted, so that the world indulges less freely in such simple pleasures of diet as cider and apples and has, by this gain, in a sense undoubtedly lost. Other fruits are also of value but to be less bound by the modern slavery of the "necessity" of luxuries, whether imported and expensive (because less easily obtainable) fruits, or rich foods of other kinds, in winter or summer, would tend to simpler and more powerful directness of thought and strength of brain.

Pomologically speaking, the apple is the Mains mains, broadly considered, of the great Rose Family, and twin relative of the pear, yet somewhat more positive in character. Its bulk makes it of as much proportionate value as a food as do its juices — preventing necessity of medicine. Malic acid, that great germ destroyer, is the most prominent of its acids, but its salts — its phosphates, are of equal balance in keepingliver, stomach, and intestines in healthful activity. An uncooked apple eaten at night before retiring (a glass of water to follow it) is one of the oldest of beauty and health prescriptions, preventing or relieving constipation, and giving clearness of complexion. The uncooked apple was of old considered Nature's complement for nuts, the eating of them together offsetting too great richness (by over-indulgence) of nut-fat and preventing indigestion. Salt was eaten with them at night to assist in digesting acid and fat: the three forming a notable trio. Cooked, the apple is also laxative, tonic and nourishing.

Fresh, sweet cider, bubbling with beauty, scintillating with sun-shafts, needs neither poetry nor spiking to recommend it, so evident is its simple wholesomeness to even the wayfaring man unless he be a fool. The crab-apple's juice (" ver-juice") is not pleasing until well fermented but in age (at even but three years) attains similarity to champagne. Medicinally ver-juice is valued. It should be mentioned here that the common crab-apple and the Siberian crabs are of different species, the latter being Pyrus baccata and Pyrus prunijolia.

Cider (with the possibility of gingerbread) and apples, salt, and nuts at the old time gatherings "by early candlelighting" were more apt to be followed by sleep and health than the complicated "refreshments" at later hours of modern evening parties. When it is realised that in any reasonable form, a diet of apples rivals the famous grapecures and is a diet conducive to beauty, this old-fashioned first of fruits must certainly come back into favour and be given its former prestige.

The following is the analysis of a pint of the cider given regularly to day-labourers in the agricultural districts of England (according to Voelker; Enc. Brit.):

Gum and Albuminous

Water Alcoho Grape Sug. Extractive Matter Malic Acid Ash Compounds grs. grs. grs. grs. grs. grs. grs.

OLD-FASHIONED APPLE SAUCE

Pare, core, and quarter tart apples and at supper time place in a small crock on the back of the (warm) stove, pouring over the apples a pint of sugar dissolved in a cup of hot water. Cover the crock close and let stand till morning when the apples will be tender and may be served as a breakfast dish or set aside to be chilled for luncheon or supper.

CIDER APPLE SAUCE

Pare, core, and wash apples (two- thirds sweet, one-third sour), and place in preserving kettle with one quart of cider for each pailful of apples. Simmer slowly till of a deep colour. Quinces may be added to the sauce to give flavour; a dozen or less as taste indicates. Put away in stone jars.

STEWED APPLES AND DATES

Where unripe, insipid apples are the only ones available they may be improved in flavour and nutritive value by adding a half cup or more of stoned, sliced dates to each quart of partially stewed apples. Simmer the fruit together about six minutes and set aside to cool. The grated rind of a lemon (which, if preferred, may be tied in a bit of linen) or the juice of a lemon, placed with the apples when first put on, pleasantly varies the flavour.

APPLES AND PRUNES OR RAISINS

These also are combinations affording much nourishment and variety and may be made with either dried or fresh apples. If dried wash, core, and soak over night and wash the raisins or prunes, working the latter well with the hands. Let them stand in the last water over night and simmer in it in the morning. (The water in which the fruit was soaked should be sufficient to cook it all in the morning.) Simmer the raisins or prunes very slowly for an hour then add the soaked apples and simmer together till done. No sugar should be needed, which is an additional reason for the healthfulness of the dish.

BAKED APPLES (With nuts or honey)

Peel the apples and core well, then place in daep pan, allowing a heaping tablespoon of sugar and half a cup of water to each apple. In the centre of each apple place a teaspoon of chopped nuts and strip of lemon or orange peel and over the whole sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake very slowly and the juice will become jelly-like. Serve hot or cold.

Or, fill centres with honey and a little butter, preparing otherwise the same.

APPLE SOUP No. i

For three pints of soup take a pint of apple stewed soft, rubbed through colander and sweetened, and to it add one and one-half tablespoons sago or tapioca cooked till soft and clear in a pint of boiling water. Simmer together twenty minutes, flavouring with salt and cinnamon; strain and serve hot or chilled.

APPLE SOUP No. 2

To two quarts of water allow seven tart apples cored but unpeeled, sliced thin. Cook them with one-half cup rice till soft then rub through sieve, add spice, a little sugar, and chopped or candied fruit. (See also Fruit Soups in Introductory Recipes.)

APPLE DUMPLINGS, BAKED, No. i

Peel and core cooking apples, filling centres with sugar. Roll out biscuit dough rather thin and cut in squares large enough to cover apples. Place an apple in the centre of each square ; bring up the corners of the dough and fasten by pinching and twisting dough together. Place in baking pan close together and when pan is full pour over them a syrup made with one pint of water and one pound of sugar, letting this come half way to the top of the dumplings. Place in rather brisk oven and bake about forty minutes. Cinnamon may be sprinkled over the tops of each. This is the best form of apple dumplings though there are other good methods.

APPLE DUMPLINGS, BAKED, No. 2

The apples may be cored and quartered; placed in earthen baking-dish with a square of dough tucked down around each (not under them) a little sugar and water added, and baked. Individual baking-dishes may be used, instead.

APPLE DUMPLINGS, BOILED

The apples maybe prepared as for baked dumplings (No.i) then each one tied in a cloth, plunged into boiling water, and boiled hard an hour and a half. One large dumpling may be made, filled with sliced apples and sugar. In the latter case it will require two hours to cook thoroughly, and the water must boil constantly, being replenished as needed.

APPLE DUMPLINGS IN CUPS

Line baking cups with thin pastry ; fill up with slices of apple and sugar; place on each a cover of the pastry and put them in a large baking-pan, pouring boiling water around the cups half way up, and bake in hot oven.

APPLE DUMPLING SLICES

Make a biscuit dough and roll out thin, covering with a layer of fine sliced apples, and roll over as for roly poly. Then slice, set the pieces on end (as with domino rows), in a buttered pan, and pour over them a syrup of a cup of sugar and half a cup of water. Add a bit of butter for each dumpling and bake half an hour, or till brown.

APPLE BATTER PUDDING

Peel, core, and slice thin six tart apples and place in baking-dish. Cream together one-fourth cup butter and one cup sugar; add two eggs, one cup of milk, and two cups of flour in which must be sifted two teaspoons baking powder. Pour the mixture over the apples and steam one hour. Serve with cream or sauce.

APPLE SLUMP No. i

Pare, core, and quarter one dozen tart, juicy apples and place in a saucepan which has a close cover. Pour over them a pint of hot water and set on the back of the stove for eight minutes, when add two cups of molasses. Make a soft biscuit dough with milk and roll out half an inch thick, making of it a cover for the apples. Place this paste-cover on the apples and put on tight the lid of the saucepan, bucket, or other vessel used. Cook on top of stove for thirty minutes without lifting cover. This may be set in oven to brown a few minutes or served as it is — with a sweet sauce.

APPLE SLUMP No. 2

Mix with a milk biscuit dough (using a pint and a half of flour) one or two eggs and through it two quarts of finecut apples. Place half an inch thick in buttered baking-pan. Bake in quick oven and eat with cream.

APPLE JONATHAN

Work butter into bread dough till it is quite short then with it line the sides of a baking-dish. Heap the centre with pared, cored, sliced apples and place a thick sheet of the paste on top. Bake well, then lift off the crust and turn it upside down on a second dish. Into the apples stir sugar and butter, with spice if desired, and spread upon the crust. Eat hot with cream.

BROWN BETTY

Chop fine two cups of tart apples. Butter a baking-dish and place on it a layer of apple, sprinkling with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Place on this a layer of the crumbs, alternating with the apple till dish is three-fourths full, leaving bread-crumbs on top. Add no water but cover tight and steam three-quarters of an hour in moderate oven when remove cover and quickly brown. Serve with milk or sweet sauce.

APPLE SNOW BALLS

Prepare squares of cloth as for individual boiled dumplings and line with a layer of hot boiled rice. Place in the centre chopped, sliced or cored apple, if the last, filling centres with nuts. Tie the cloth well and bake or steam

forty minutes.

APPLE PONE

See Indian Apple Pudding.

APPLE CAKE

Make as for Huckleberry Cake for luncheon or supper dish.

INDIAN APPLE PUDDING

Pare and core a dozen apples. Have ready a quart of milk heated and add a quart of Indian meal, mixing and cooking carefully a few minutes. Add salt to taste, a cup each of molasses and suet (chopped) . Pour over the apples ; place in baking-dish and bake two hours or boil (in pudding cloth) for three.

APPLE AMBER

Core, peel, and chop three-fourths pound of apples. Mix together four ounces of suet, two each of sugar and flour, and six of breadcrumbs. When chopped and mixed add a little nutmeg and grated lemon peel and two beaten eggs. Stir thoroughly and place in a well buttered mould with cloth tied tight over the top. Boil three hours.

GERMAN APPLE CAKE (Simple) No. x or Apfel Kuchen

Add to one pint of the sponge for the usual light bread one-half cup each of sugar and shortening, one-half teaspoon salt, one cup of milk and enough flour to make a soft dough. Spread this half an inch thick in the baking-pan and on it place in rows thin, lengthwise slices of apples. Let this rise half an hour in a warm spot; sprinkle with one half cup of sugar and cinnamon mixed — also a few bits of butter — then bake.

GERMAN APPLE CAKE No. 2

This form of "kuchen" may be made with baking powder. Use a pint of flour in which have been sifted a half teaspoon of salt and one and a half of baking powder with a tablespoon of sugar. Rub through this two tablespoons of butter, and mix well with one beaten egg and enough milk to make a thick batter (three-fourths cup or more). Place in baking pan one inch thick and over the top place apples cut into eighths, in rows, sharp edges pressed into the dough. Sprinkle as above with cinnamon and sugar and bake in brisk oven.

GERMAN APPLE CAKE No. 3

Into a pound and a quarter of sifted flour rub three-fourths pound of butter and roll out an inch thick. Have ready pared, cored, and sliced thin, (as in foregoing recipe) juicy apples mixed with one or two quinces and half a pound of raisins seeded. Sweeten well with brown sugar and add a little nutmeg with a wineglassful of rosewater or the juice and rind of two lemons. Place this mixed fruit on the pastry and fold over, then put in a baking pan which has been sprinkled with a little butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Also on top sprinkle this and while baking add more. Bake two hours in moderate oven.

DRIED APPLE FRUIT CAKE

Soak two cups of dried apples over night. In the morning chop and simmer them, until dark, (red or brown), in two cups of Orleans molasses. Let cool and add one cup each of butter and milk, one half cup sugar, three cups of flour, two level teaspoons each of cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, three of baking powder, three eggs, and one-half pound of raisins. (Also, if liked, a cup of currants and a tablespoon of chopped citron.) Bake for two or two and a half hours in slow oven.

APPLE SOLID

Simmer one and one half pounds lump sugar with three pounds sliced apples and juice and grated rind of three lemons, until thick, when pour into a wetted mould till cold. Turn out and serve with cream.

APPLE SNOW

Apple Snow may be made in two ways, using either the cooked or uncooked apples. For the uncooked grate a medium-sized tart apple (peeled, grated, and set aside). Whip stiff the white of one egg with a pinch of salt, then add, gradually, three tablespoons of sugar, beating well into the egg, alternating with the grated apple, a tablespoon at a time, till all the apple and sugar are used, then continue to whip until the "snow" has risen to at least a pint and a half in quantity, for it will swell surprisingly. If the cooked apple is used, observe the same proportion, the white of one egg to the pulp of each apple. Chopped dates or nuts may be added or fresh, grated cocoanut. The "snow" may be served as it is, or quickly and lightly browned.

APPLE CHEESE (Cake or Tart Filling)

To a pound of sugar add one-fourth pint of water and one-half pound of apples — peeled, cored, and quartered — and the grated rind of one lemon. Cook for three hours then add the juice of the lemon, boil for ten minutes, stirring continually, then removing. Use this as a filling for tarts or cake or with nuts as sandwich filling.

APPLE FILLING FOR CAKE

Make as for Apple Snow, using one eggt one apple, and one cup of sugar. Also, for variety, the yolk of the egg may be added, the whole heated carefully till it thickens.

APPLE FLOAT

Make first a plain custard and when cold stir in it a pint either of apple sauce or a pint of grated apple (uncooked). Whip in the stiff whites the last thing.

JELLIED OR GELATINE APPLES

To two quarts of tart apples, peeled, cored, and quartered, allow one half box of gelatine and put it to soak in one half cup of water. Make a syrup of a pint each of water and sugar, adding lemon juice, peel or flavoring, and a dusting of ginger. Let sugar dissolve then boil five minutes. Drop in the syrup the apples, three or four at a time, and let cook till tender but not broken. Dip out with skimmer and place on a platter. When all are cooked and removed put the softened gelatine in the syrup until quite dissolved then remove and stir till it begins to set. Wet a mould and place in it half the jelly, then the apples in a layer and the rest of the jelly over them, setting away to chill and harden. Serve with cream.

CIDER JELLY

To two pints of cider allow two full tablespoons of gelatine, softening the gelatine in a little of the cold cider, heating the remainder to boiling point, adding a pound of sugar and then the softened gelatine. Strain and turn into a mould; cool and set on ice. Serve with rich milk.

APPLE CHARLOTTE

Soften a half box of gelatine in a half cup of cold water then heat it over steam for a half hour. Grate two large, tart apples and one lemon or orange and beat lightly into a pint of whipped cream, then add the gelatine and when thoroughly mixed turn into a mould and set aside to cool before placing on ice. Serve with rich milk or wine sauce.

MERINGUED APPLES