Fruit recipes

‘Prickly Pear’ is rather an indefinite term as there are over one hundred and fifty members of this, the Opuntia, of the Cactacee. The yellow-fruited O. Ficus-Indiea and the O. tuna, which bears purple-red fruit, are perhaps best known and are very commonly used for eating uncooked or stewed with some other fruit, as lemon or pineapple, for flavouring, or preserves. The fruit, though sub-acid, has with many varieties not distinct enough a tone to render it extremely popular though it is very refreshing and cooling and the mucilaginous quality, which is not unpleasant, is considered healing. The purple-fruited prickly pear is often used for colouring in desserts and preserves. The Granadilla and ‘“‘May-Pop’’ are members of the Passifloracee, edible fruits of the passion vine. The Maypop, Passiflora incarnata, grows wild in the Southern States, but it is little known that it makes a beautiful and delicate jelly. It is a smaller edition of the Passiflora edulis and the Passiflora quadrangularis, two varieties of granadilla, SIX FAMILIAR FRUITS 399 some of the latter of which grow to the size of a small melon. It was named, it is said, by the early Spaniards for the pomegranate, or “granada.” It is often served uncooked with wine and sugar. Where jelly is made of this or the May-pop, the ripe fruit, halved across, should be covered with cold water, adding about one-third the quantity of well filled out but still immature, green-skinned fruit. Cook slowly for three-quarters of an hour, then add a little cold water and simmer again for an hour. Strain off the juice (which should by this time be well cooked down), and proceed as for ordinary fruit jelly. (See previous recipes.) Marmalade may be made by using the pulp of the fruit, putting through a colander or sieve, cooking down, and adding sugar. The resulting colour of jelly or marmalade is a pale yellow. The famous Tamarind Tree (Tamarindus Indica) has delicate leaves and pink and white flowers succeeded by edible pods which are preserved and used in confections, beverages, and medicinally. The acid of the fresh tamarind is very pleasing, and is a combination of citric, malic, formic, butyric, and tartaric acids, the tartness being given chiefly by the citric. The laxative and cooling qualities make the tamarind considered of much value in many cases of illness and certainly in the prevention of it. Tamarinds are usually shipped from the East or West Indies in some form of preserve though with a little more care it is said they might be had more abundantly in the market in fresh form, if the shell or pod were prevented from breaking, for with this natural protection they keep well for some months. With the pods removed the tamarind may be preserved by pouring boiling syrup over the fruit or by placing in stone jars with alternate layers of sugar. They may be also candied and made into syrup for use in various summer drinks, though now known chiefly as a valued drink in fevers. The tamarind perhaps may be likened to the lemon and also somewhat to the grape. It has a good percentage of bitartrate of potassa, its other components (besides the acids) being gum, pectin, water, and pulpy matter. The Bread Fruit Tree (Artocarpus incisa, or A. communis) bears for eight months in succession its generous balls of pulp which are so useful as a food to so many tropical peoples. It is prepared in various ways for eating, one of the most common methods being to bake it with a bit of fat meat in the centre of the fruit. It tastes something like potato as well as somewhat resembling bread. THE PRICKLY PEAR MAMMEE APPLE OR ST. DOMINGO APRICOT [illustration: Prickly Pear and Mammee Apple] a} hs CHAPTER XXXII