Ls

—

Before the Beginning

whether of . watermelons by the

light of a crescent moon, June apples scarce overripe and yet o’er the fence, of cheer up cherries or the juicy, sugary California prune, these few remarks are dedicated. We hope you may come out to California, and while basking beneath our vine and fig tree, eat of our seedless grapes and munch our California-Smyrna figs from over- head.

To E. J. Wickson, author of “Cali- fornia Fruits,” Elwood Cooper, Chas. H. Allen, Volney Rattan, H. P. Stabler, W. P. Lyon, Philo Hersey, A: Block; W. R. Radcliff, Mrs. B. R. Follett, Mrs. K. M.. Tileston,, Mrs: -S:.. Bo. Hankins: Mrs. A. E. Gibson, Mrs. C. Goodwin, W. W. W., Housekeeper, Mrs. Weisen- danger, Mrs. H. A. Lee, Miss Emma Riehl, Mrs. EK. C. Hatch, Miss Mabel Follett, Mrs. C; P> Taft, Mrs. be Greenleaf, Miss Cooper, Mrs. Alice Rich- ardson and other authorities, thanks are tendered for ideas taken and_ recipes submitted.

r \O lovers of good fruit everywhere,

KAT CALIFORNIA FRUIT

1904 SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO

fruit. Your home cook-book probably has less knowledge upon the subject than you. The writer scanned three standard cook-books yesterday—not one had one intelligent recipe for simple prep- aration of California fruit, such as apricots, peaches and prunes.

You would have had better health.

Maybe your health was good anyway; it’s robust health that won’t invite a little improvement.

Ask your doctor if a pound and a half a day of California fruit will improve your health. If he says, yes, he is wise; if he says no—hardly think it possible—investigate further. You may need a new doctor.

Take this home with you; even if you never buy California fruit, a neighbor might send over some when he returns the lawn mower, or the rich aunt in California make you a Christmas present. Then in the following pages you will find (1), Why California fruits are the best; (2), The California fruits as nutritious health foods, and (3), The different California fruits with simple recipes for table preparation.

CHAPTER AL

Why California Fruits Are Best

The best climate is essential in the production of the best fruit. Do not permit wiseacres who would plant persimmons in a snowdrift to teach you otherwise. The man who “must have frost in his fruit” may as well eat frozen fruit as to expect a frost stunted tree to bring forth perfect fruit.

The scientist Boussingault says that climate in the production of fruit is essentially important in no less than six phases; a different degree of temperature is required for (1) germination, (2) chemical changes, (3) flowering, (4) devel- opment of seeds, (5) elaboration of saccharine

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juices, (6) development of aroma or bouquet, each step requiring more heat than its predecessor.

The long California summer gives to each change its due consideration, and ripens the whole into a harvest fit for consumption on high Olympus—or even in New York. In the month following the formation of seeds in fruit, the mean temperature should not be below 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit (Boussingault). This is not a matter of guess work, but of experiment and observation. The germinating time, the chemical change period, the blossom season, the seed growth, the sugar making, the creation of aroma; each must be protected by a California climate of sufficient length and above a certain minimum of temper- ature to create perfection. Nowhere in the world does the climate so nearly meet these ideal requirements as in California.

But that is not alone the reason why Cali- fornia fruits are best. Count de Gasparin points out that not alone sufficient heat but abundance of continuous sunshine is a requisite of perfection. Without light there is no fructification. You might plant a tree in your cellar and try raising fruit by steam heat if you doubt this.

Therefore, the deliciousness of California fruit is largely because of the State’s abundance of clear sunshine. The average number of cloudy days, according to the United States Weather Bureau, is in the principal cities of the East from April to September, four times the number in the fruit centers of California.

When you eat California fruit you eat sunshine fruit. ‘Please, Mr. Waiter, a pound of sunshine for dessert.”

Nor is this all. There is a third reason, and this is the one that makes summer life in California as agreeable to humanity as it is to fruit—the absence of humidity.

In the East, the winter is the period of low

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humidity, if there be such a period, and the summer that of high humidity. In California, vice versa. Your clothes stick to you in the Eastern summer, and you don’t feel like sticking to anything. Humid summer weather is not good for fruit. In California we have no such summer weather.

Professor Tyndall said that during periods of high humidity, clouds of vapor act as a screen to the earth—and thereby lessen the chemical efiects of the sun in fruit-ripening. On your Eastern humid days, no matter how bright the sun to your eye, the water vapor in the air absorbs the sun’s rays and retards the ripening of fruit. We have no such days in California. Our fruit ripens thoroughly.

The clear, brilliant sunshine of California; not a scorching heat, for neither man, nor beast, nor plant wilts under it, the long weeks of cloud- less weather each day molding the fruit toward perfection in some detail; with such climatic environment do you wonder that California fruit is something apart by itself, not to be compared with fruit of the same names, raised elsewhere? If you bought an apple you would inquire if it were a Jonathan or a wild crab—if a nut, whether a pig nut or hickory nut—in buying fruit ask if it be California fruit or otherwise.

All this may seem farfetched to you. To us of California it is an old story, for our main- tenance depends upon an _ intelligent under- standing and application of climatic conditions. Our different varieties of fruits demand different variations of our sunshiny climate and our fertile soil.

Of the wonderful variety of California soils that grow these fruits, little may be said here. To the orchardist a thorough knowledge of them is most valuable, for upon that knowledge depends the distribution and planting of trees.

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To the consumer the fruits speak for themselves. They seem to have the lightness and vitality of the soil, the aroma and bouquet of magic sun- shine and the juiciness and sugar of the fair land of romance whence one would not expect insipidity nor acridity.

CHAPTER III As Nutritious Health Foods

Dr. Kellogg, the scientist who has been watch- ing the digestion of the people, says in Good Health that he has experimented with 16,000 cases of stomach germs causing indigestion. He discovered first that none of these germs could be made to grow in fruit juice, and, second, that fruit juice would not support germ life in any case. In extracts of grains they grew, though not vigorously; in beef tea, the most deadly flourished.

In France extensive experiments have shown appendicitis to exist among the meat eaters; the classes using fruits largely are exempt. Our present day life with its excess of meat eating among certain classes promotes appendicitis, indigestion and various germ diseases of the digestive apparatus. To counteract this germ culture, one should eat plentifully of California fruits—say a pound and a half a day.

But California fruits are not only disease preventives and appetizing side dishes. They are important foods which are needed to make one physically and nervously strong. Any scientific work dealing with food will tell you that fruit and nuts contain large quantities of sugar and fats, that acid fruits are needed every day in the year, and that the nearest to a substitute for regular physical exercise is a plentiful fruit diet. There is no better way in which to imbibe a goodly amount of absolutely pwre water than

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to eat plenty of California fruit. Any physician can tell you of the merits of the fruit in giving strength and tone to the digestive organs. The food values of the different fruits will be dealt with in connection with the recipes given in the following chapter.

If you follow these recipes in the very simple suggestions offered for the preparation of the fruit, and use the fruits liberally, you will become a more enthusiastic spokesman in behalf of California fruits as health food products than the writer is herein.

CHAPTER IV

Preparation for the Table

The prune is the best known and most widely marketed of California deciduous fruits. The California prune is of a class of its own and has absorbed the larger part of the European market in competition with the longer known prune of Southern Europe. This California prune is noth- ing more nor less than a very nutritious, sugary and delicious plum. In its preparation for the table the aim should be to restore it as nearly as possible to its ripe condition on the tree.

The California prune is a wonderful food fruit. As you buy it in the market, you pay for one third the water that you do in purchasing beef- steak, eggs or potatoes. In amount of carbo- hydrates, starches and sugars the prune surpasses all the other foods.

The prune more nearly approaches the ideal human food than any other article of diet. But, after all, we do not view food from a health point of view altogether. It must be appetizing and make the mouth water if it is to be popular. And there is no more delicious, appetizing a dish than six or eight California prunes, properly prepared.

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There is everything in the selection and prep- aration of prunes. Skilful preparation will place at your plate almost the same luscious, purple fruit that hangs from the tree in August.

Prunes are classified as to size by the number to the pound. You will observe stamped on the boxes, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90, 90-100, these numbers indicating that between thirty and forty make a pound, and so on. As a rule the grocer should ask you a half cent a pound more for forty-fiftys than for fifty-sixtys, and a half cent more for fifty-sixtys than for sixty-seventys, though the relative values vary, depending on supplies. The larger prune is more valuable, because the proportion of pit and skin is less. Prunes that run over one hundred and ten to the pound are too small to be very edible. The middle sizes are best liked.

Now, go to the grocer and ask him for five pounds of California prunes out of one of his twenty-five or fifty-pound boxes, and for your own satisfaction observe the size stencilled on the box—*‘50-60” or the lke.

Wash the prunes carefully. They are packed in California with cleanliness and care, but no harm is done in rinsing them well. They may have sugared; that is the fruit sugar may have exuded through the skin and given them a white appearance. No harm is done.

Then, soak the prunes. You have bought prunes without water, but to get them back to their fresh state their present dry weight must be nearly doubled by absorption of water. They lost that in curing. Ten or twelve hours of soaking in cold water will be enough, or less in tepid water. Under no circumstances soak them ‘till the skins begin to break. When soaking begins add sugar as desired. The California prunes are sweet; but sugar put to soak with them is changed during the association to fruit

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sugar. The prunes, while not materially sweeter to the taste, are richer in flavor. Do not add sugar to prunes after cooking; you injure the flavor.

Now, your prunes are palatable just as they are after soaking. A great many are eaten so, and those who acquire this “prune habit” usually abide with it. But we will presume you want your prunes cooked a little.

Keep them in the water in which they were soaked and set them to simmer in a broad pan so that the prunes shall not be more than three inches deep. The water should hardly cover them, but should show among the surface prunes. Then let *em simmer.

Do not boil prunes; that is what spoils prunes, according to most epicures.

Simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer.

Keep the lid on; shake gently now and then; don’t interfere with a spoon. If the water is above 180 degrees Fahrenheit, it is too hot.

When the skins of the prunes are tender (take one up in a spoon and see if the skin breaks easily between thumb and finger), the prunes are done. Pour off the liquor and boil it down to a syrup by itself if desired. Use as much as you wish of it with the prunes. Serve the prunes about eight large ones or twelve small ones to a dish with a tablespoonful or more of cream, and you have one of the most delicious dishes in existence.

Greatest of breakfast foods is the prune. With or without cereals it is an appetizing, satisfying food.

The writer lives in the Santa Clara Valley where fresh fruit is obtainable in abundance cheaply at all times of the year. Yet rarely he goes without prunes for breakfast; for in prunes, properly prepared, he finds fresh fruit, good food, and good health.

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A little claret or sauterne poured over prunes just as cooking is finished adds a flavor liked by many.

One word about how to treat prunes. Don’t ‘suppose because the prune keeps better than any other cooked food that it will remain pala- table if abused. Cook not too many at a time; if you have them on the table constantly as you should, you should not in slovenly style cook a month’s supply at a time. You would not think of baking bread or cooking meat so.

Dr: Hanson, of Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, who has made a study of prunes, says:

“Nutritious value, pound of prunes equals a gallon of milk; greater than pound of bread and as_ cheap. Bread and prunes are as economical a diet as bread alone and far more healthful. Fresh meat, fish, milk or eggs, are not even approximately as valuable food as prunes and are much more expensive propor- tionately.”

In a lunch for school or the factory you may substitute stewed or steamed prunes for part of the bread, and, pound for pound, you will be at no greater expense.

There is no fruit more healthful. A dish of prunes a half hour before retiring and a dish at breakfast, and stomach ills will disappear. As a tonic and regulator of the digestive and assimilative apparatus of the human body, the modest California prune without an M.D. to its name, has unequalled value. When you are inclined to take somebody’s bitters or sarsaparilla, eat prunes; when some patent medicine war- ranted to clear your mind or your stomach or your blood, appeals to you—why, eat more prunes. Cheaper, more efficacious, much more pleasant to take, the California prune is not only Greatest of Breakfast Foods but as a health conserver is better than all the patent medicines you can

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pour from a bottle—even though a weighty name be blown thereon.

Some recipes are given herein. The good housewife will adapt the prune when she finds its value to puddings, pies and cakes to suit her fancy. Upon a foundation of steamed or stewed prunes are the more fancy edibles erected.

Of the California prunes, ninety per cent are the so-called French variety, coming hence from France. Dark skinned, clear meated, sweet prunes, they have no superiors. The Imperial and Sugar prunes, averaging larger in size, are somewhat sweeter. The Rote de Sargent type, the German, Fallenbey, etc., while rich in sugar have a slight acidity, liked by many. The Silver prune is the only light prune, a very large amber- colored fruit like the egg plum. The latter is sour and without the nutrition of the Silver prune; do not accept as a substitute.

CHAPTER V Worth While Recipes—Prunes

STEWED PRUNES—Wash the prunes well, put in a kettle, just cover with cold. water and let stand all night. In morning put on the stove in the same water. Boil until tender. Don’t stir or mash them. Set back on the stove where they will simmer until the juice is a thick syrup and very little of it. Eat when cold with cream.

STEWED WITH JACKETS Orr—Wash thoroughly. Put in a fruit kettle; cover with cold water. Do not have the fire too brisk, as at no time must the prunes boil. Let them come slowly to the scalding point and scald for ten or fifteen minutes. Remove from the stove, pour off the hot water and cover with cold water so that the prunes may be easily hhandled. Slip the skins off and replace prunes in the kettle.

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Cover with water and simmer slowly thirty or forty minutes. Use no sugar.

STEWED PRUNES WITH ORANGE—Soak three quarts of prunes over night in enough water to cover them. Add one cup of sugar and a sliced orange or lemon. Cover with water and stew two hours. Prunes cooked in this way have a rich color and flavor.

STEAMED Prunes—Wash the prunes two or three times in warm water. Put them into a stew-pan with half a cup of water. Cover closely and let them steam till the water is absorbed. Do not stir or break the fruit. When cool place in a glass dish and grate a lemon peel over them, sprinkle with sugar and cover with whipped cream.

STEAMED PruNES—Wash thoroughly; steam until the fruit is swollen to its original size and is tender. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and squeeze lemon juice over them.

BoILepD PRuNES—Wash carefully. Put to boil with plenty of water, adding sliced lemon to suit. Cook until tender, adding a little sugar at finish. Serve in their own syrup cold. This “fast cook- ing” recipe does not conform to the conventions in cooking prunes, but finds favor with many.

PrRuNES WitH WHIPPED CREAM—Cook in usual manner. Cut in two, remove pit, serve cold with whipped cream as dessert. <A delicious dish.

PrRuNE Puppine—Take three tablespoonfuls of sugar, two of butter, one egg, one large cup of buttermilk, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in milk, one and a half cups of prunes, seeded, and chopped fine, one and one-half cups of flour, a little salt and nutmeg. Steam three hours. This is to be served with a sauce made of one cup of butter, one spoonful of flour, a cup of sugar and two cups of hot water. Boil thoroughly and flavor.

PRUNE PuppInc—Remove the pits from a large cupful of stewed prunes and chop fine. Add the

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whites of three eggs and half a cup of sugar beaten to a stiff froth. Mix well, turn into a buttered dish and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve with whipped cream.

Prune Pir—Line a pie-pan with pastry and fill with pitted, stewed prunes. When baked cover with a meringue of the whites of three eggs sweetened with three heaping tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Return pie to the oven and let it brown. The meringue may be replaced by whipped cream.

EbDEN VALE Prune Wuip—Take one pint large stewed prunes, one-third pint thick cream, the whites of six eggs, and raspberry or Loganberry jelly. After thoroughly draining the prunes, pit them and put them through the colander; avoid rubbing the skin through, as much as possible. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth; then by degrees beat this into the sifted prunes. If not sweet enough to suit the taste add a table- spoonful of sugar. The delicacy of this dish depends largely upon the thoroughness with which these ingredients are beaten together. When they are well beaten together, pour them into a glass dish. Whip the cream and spread evenly over the top of the pudding, then fleck the whipped cream with bits of the jelly. Serve with cream, or, if preferred, with a custard made from the yolks of the six eggs.

PRUNE JELLY—A quart of prunes stewed in a quart of water until they fall to pieces. Press through colander. Soak a box of gelatin in a cup of cold water, and pour on gradually a cup of boiling water and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Add one pint of the prune pulp, the juice of a lemon and a little sugar. Strain and serve with whipped cream.

PRUNE CHARLOTTE—Stew one and a half pounds of prunes, pit them and sweeten with one cup of sugar. Line a well-buttered pudding dish

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with slices of bread and butter. Pour in the prunes and flavor with vanilla. Cover with bread and butter and bake. When done turn it out, sift sugar over it and serve with cream.

STUFFED PRUNES—Steam the prunes until soft, pit them and fill each one with plain fondant or with fondant and chopped nuts mixed.

CHAPTER VI

Raisins and How to Prepare Them

The interior valleys of California produce the finest raisins in the world—and the most. The raisin is the cured form of very sugary and delicious grapes—the Muscatel, Thompson’s Seed- less, the Seedless Muscatel, etc. At the present retail prices, this fine fruit should be a house- hold article. It may be bought in one pound cartons or in cases of thirty-six cartons or in cases of layers. A case should be the accom- paniment of every sideboard. Possessed of the dietetic value of other California cured fruit, raisins are also highly nutritious.

If when a child wants candy or pastry it were given raisins instead, there would be a happier and healthier rising generation. Many raisins are grown seedless and a large part of the rest of the product is seeded. The raisin is a natural confection, and the finest of all. More and more as the healthfulness of the seeded California raisin becomes known, it must become a household necessity not to be put on the table after a meal when one has finished, but as a “ready reference” dish like a barrel of cellar apples. What a tribute it is to Cali- fornia raisins that they are brought on the table with nuts after one has eaten all else that he ean, to give further enjoyment to the meal!

Raisins, like prunes, are delicious when returned

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to their original form as near as may be possible. Soak them, simmer them, as you would a prune. The result will be most pleasing. Use them alone or mix with other California fruits. Raisin juice extracted in cooking is simply unfermented grape juice and very pleasing to weak stomachs.

in bringing out the good qualities of puddings, cakes and mince pies, the California raisin has no rival. Thanksgiving without raisins would be like Thanksgiving without turkey. But there are fine uses to which raisins are adapted that are just becoming known. The recipes following convey some of the new ideas. Try them; you will like them:

Raisin. BreApD—Ordinary home-made bread dough; mix half pound seeded raisins for each two loaves of bread and bake in usual way. The children will cry for it; give it to them for it will do no harm, but help remove the row of medicine bottles on the upper pantry shelf.

RAISIN SANDWICHES—Chop fine one-half pound seeded raisins and one-fourth pound walnuts, together. Mix with a little mayonnaise dressing and spread between well-buttered pieces of steam bread. The most delicious sandwich ever offered a child.

BAKED RAISIN Pupprnc—Put eight ounces of dripping into a basin; warm it, and work in one pound of flour mixed with one teaspoonful of baking powder. Add one teaspoonful of ground mixed spice, one ounce of candied lemon peel cut up small, four ounces of moist sugar, and six ounces of seeded raisins. Mix them well and make the whole into a paste by adding two eggs beaten up in one teacupful of milk. Turn the mixture into a well-greased tin or dish; put in a moderate oven and bake for an hour. When done take it out, turn the pudding out of the tin or dish, sprinkle it over with caster sugar and serve.

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BorLepD Raisin PuppING—Put one-half pound each of seeded raisins, flour and shred beef suet into a basin, mix them, and add gradually one breakfast cupful of milk and a couple of well- whipped eggs. Place the mixture in a floured cloth, tie it up securely, or put it into a buttered basin, cover with a cloth, place it in a saucepan of boiling water, and boil from two hours and a half to three hours, by which time the pudding should be done. Turn it out and serve.

RAISIN CAKE—Put one pound of butter into a basin, warm it, beat it to a cream and add gradually one pound of sifted flour, the same of crushed loaf sugar and the yolks of six eggs Stir these well and when they are incorporated add one wineglassful of brandy, one grated nut- meg, one teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda dis- solved in one tablespoonful of water, and lastly, the whites of six eggs, whipped to a froth. Work well until the mixture has a light and creamy appearance, then add one pound of seeded raisins or cleaned Sultanas, finely chopped and sprinkled over with one breakfast cupful of flour to make them mix in easier. Pour. the mixture into a tin or mould lined with well-buttered paper, bake for an hour and a half, turn it out when done and it is ready for use. A few rose leaves steeped in the brandy will add to the flavor of the cake.

Raisin Crusts—Seed some bloom raisins, put them in a stew-pan with a small quantity of moist sugar and sufficient sweet wine to moisten, and stew them. Cut some pieces of bread about three inches square and one-half inch thick, and trim off the crust. Put a lump of butter or lard into a deep frying pan, and when boiling put in the squares of bread and fry them ~ until lightly and evenly browned; next drain them well, put them on a hot dish, pour the stewed raisins over, dust them with caster sugar and serve.

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RAISIN SHERBET—Put three pounds of raisins in a stone or earthenware jar, with four small lemons cut into thin slices, and one-half pound of caster sugar; pour in six quarts of water and let it remain for three days, stirring it three or four times each day. Next strain the liquor through flannel, and pour it into stone bottles, but without quite filling them. Cork the bottles, wiring them down tightly and keep them in a cool cellar. In three-weeks’ time the sherbet is ready for use.

Rory Poty Puppine—Take one-half pound shredded beef suet, mix with three breakfast cupfuls of flour sifted with one teaspoonful of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix with water to a rather stiff paste. Roll out, sprinkie with one pound seeded raisins, roll up, folding in ends neatly, tie up in a scalded and floured cloth, plunge into boiling water and cook steadily for two hours. Serve with plain sweet sauce or cream.

Mince Mrat—Take one pound boiled lean meat, one pound shredded suet, one pound apples, rind of one large lemon, one-half pound candied peel, 2 pounds raisins, one pound Sultanas. Mince all finely. Add level teaspoonful of mixed spice, the juice of a lemon, and mix all together with a bottle of raisin wine. Keep closely covered when cooking. Use a pinch of salt.

GINGER CAKE—One and one-half pounds of flour, one pound of molasses, one-fourth pound of butter, one-fourth pound of brown sugar, one ounce of ginger, one-half ounce of spice, one nut- meg grated, three eggs, a little lemon peel, and one pound of seeded raisins. Mix the flour, sugar, ginger and spices together. Warm the butter and molasses and add to the other ingredients. Dissolve one teaspoonful of soda in a small half cup of warm milk, to which add the eggs well beaten, mix all thoroughly, pour into a buttered

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cake tin and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

RAISIN CUSTARD—Sweeten one pint of milk with sugar to taste, grate in a half lemon rind, stir in three well-beaten eggs. Line a buttered basin or mould with raisins. Spread some slices of State Madeira or sponge cake in layers, with raisins sprinkled between. Pour over the custard, lay on top a sheet of buttered paper, tie a cloth securely on and boil gently for one hour.

Breap PuppING—To one pint of milk add one tablespoonful of sugar, a very little salt, and pour it boiling on one-half pound of bread crumbs. Add butter the size of a walnut and cover with a plate for an hour. Then stir in four well- whisked eggs, one pound of raisins, adding vanilla, lemon or nutmeg flavoring. Pour into a buttered basin, place a buttered paper on top, tie securely in a cloth and boil for one and one-half hours.

RAISIN CAKE—Three cups of flour, one-half pound of butter, one cup of brown sugar, one-half cup of milk, three eggs, three tablespoonfuls of molasses, one teaspoonful of soda, two teaspoon- fuls of cream of tartar, one-fourth pound of blanched almonds, one and one-half pounds of seeded raisins, one fourth pound of shredded peel, one grated nutmeg. Mode—Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add molasses, then eggs, one by one unbeaten. Add the other ingredients previously well mixed with the flour, and lastly soda and cream of tartar in a small half cup of milk. Pour into a well-buttered paper-lined tin, and bake in a steady oven from two to three hours.

RAISIN STUFFING FoR TURKEY—Take one pound of freshly minced beef, a small onion, a little parsley and thyme, one pound of seeded raisins and a tablespoonful of butter. Mix these and cook for about ten minutes. Grate some stale bread, or preferably crackers, and with a beaten egg bind the mixture. To keep it moist, add

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two tablespoonfuls of any good table sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

STUFFED APpPpLES—Take large, green apples, pare and core liberally, chop finely some seeded raisins, with a small piece of butter, fill and sprinkle a small quantity of sugar on top. Tie up each apple in a thin water paste, then securely in a cloth, and plunge into boiling water and cook two hours. Serve at once with plain butter sauce or cream.

OATMEAL AND RAISIN GINGERBREAD—Warm one pound of molasses with one-quarter pound of butter, lard or dripping and one-quarter pound of brown sugar. Mix with one and one-half pounds of fine oatmeal one-half pound of flour, one teaspoonful of baking powder, one table- spoonful of ground ginger, one-half teaspoonful of mixed spice, one ounce of candied peel cut finely, and one pound of raisins chopped small. Pour the molasses, ete., over the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a buttered tin and bake. A portion of this mixture can be made into squares or nuts and baked in a slow oven. Eggs may be worked in as for ordinary cake if preferred. This is especially good and nour- ishing for children.

CHAPTER VII

Peaches, Apples and Plums

Who does not know the most delicious fruit? It’s a peach. The California peach is beyond all comparison the best. Averaging nearly twice the size of its Eastern cousin, it has the aroma and the saccharine sweetness that only a long cloudless summer can give.

Like prunes, peaches should be restored as near as possible in preparation for the table to the ripe fruit on the tree. One may buy peaches,

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peeled or unpeeled, and there is great difference of opinion as to which is the finest. If you buy unpeeled and desire them otherwise, you can peel them yourself, after giving a hot-water bath.

Let the cured peaches stand in tepid water a half hour and then stir vigorously, washing clean. Rinse in cold water and then put to soak. Peaches should be allowed to absorb all moisture possible before cooking, and whatever sugar is to be added should be sprinkled over them while they are soaking.

Simmer your peaches. Do not boil them to pieces but let them simmer and re-ripen just as if the sun were doing the work. Pour off the syrup when the peaches are done, and boil it down and partly cool before pouring over the fruit. Served with cream, it will make you think you are in a California peach orchard in midsummer-—and there is no more epicurean place.

BakepD PreacuES—Fill porcelain pan with peaches, halved, skin side down, well soaked. Bake slowly, baste frequently, serve with cream. Nothing better.

CURED PEACHES—Cover several pounds of peaches with water and allow to remain twenty- four hours. Add more water if it is all absorbed after twenty-four hours, as there must be some water present at the end of that time. - For each pound of cured fruit take three-quarters pound of sugar, three thin slices of a California lemon, a_ three-inch piece of cinnamon, two cloves and one or two kernels of allspice, add the liquid from the cured peaches, and boil for five or ten minutes, stirring constantly. Strain with a sieve and place in a saucepan with the cured peaches. Boil until the peaches are very tender, the time can only be determined by exam- ining and tasting the fruit. This recipe will be found greatly superior to spiced preserves

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made from fresh fruit, and much easier to pre- pare. When convenient use rain-water in this recipe.

NECTARINES—This juicy, thin-skinned fruit is liked above all others by many people for its well-defined, original flavor. In preparation the nectarine is governed by the same rules of the game as peaches.

California peaches, plums, ete., may be found fresh in Eastern and European markets, being forwarded under refrigeration.

THE AppLeE—Nothing need be said of the apple as an apple. To the order of apple-eaters belong all wise people, and he who lunches in midsummer on bread and butter, a dish of prunes, a little olive oil, a handful of raisins and a goodly apple is wise beyond common wisdom. Yet many do not know the flavor and keeping qualities of the California apples—the Newtown Pippins, the White Winter Pearmain, the Fancy Red (never mind the old name), the Bellefleur and others. The English market esteems the Newtown Pippin of the Pajaro and Santa Clara Valleys, California, above all other varieties. Visit Covent Garden in December and ascertain for yourself. The proof of the apple is in the demand, and the fifteen hundred carloads that the Pajaro Valley produces each year do not fill the demand.

It is needless to offer apple recipes here. Every competent housewife is familiar with the use of the most widely grown American fruit.

THe GRAPE—California grapes are best known in their raisin form and as the finest of wines, but each year the increase in shipments of the fruit fresh under refrigeration to Eastern markets becomes greater. The magnificent White Muscat, the Royal Flame Tokay, the Great Black Hamburg, the Emperor and others have no rivals in Eastern markets except among themselves in the favor of people who know grapes.

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THE PLrumM—The California plums are shipped fresh all over the United States. The improve- ments made by Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, in the introduction and propagation of new varieties place the California plum so far ahead of all others in size and flavor as to admit of no comparison.

CHAPTER Vill

Apricots, Pears, Figs, Olives and Other Fruits

The apricot is a royal California fruit. Nowhere else in the United States does it so nearly approach perfection. England and the United States divide its consumption, cured (or dried) and canned, it being like the peach, largely pre- pared for market in both forms.

The apricot is a deliciously flavored fruit, hav- ing also many of the dietetic qualities of the prune. Of all table fruits it is the prettiest, being in its red amber beauty a feast to the eye as well as to the palate.

Apricots should be soaked from ten to twenty hours, using plenty of sugar. If they are then ripe and appetizing do not cook. Instead drain them until the fruit is dry. Boil the syrup down one half and pour over the fruit. If the fruit be a little green, that is, was dried before thoroughly ripe, you can simmer an hour or two to complete the task of the sun. If you boil apricots you will be expelled from the order of excellent cooks.

Prars—The California pear is used chiefly fresh (being sent to England and the East under ice), and canned. Nevertheless, the cured pear is growing in favor. Many people, indeed, like to eat them just as they come from the drying

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field, the pear having a rare richness that condensed in the cured product is unusually appetizing. Pears are better for plenty of soaking before cooking. The luscious ripe pear is a reservoir of water and the cured fruit should be given ample opportunity to get back its normal moisture. Pears are served baked more often than any other way. Soak till they assume normal size, then place in layers in baking-pan sprinkling with sugar. Bake very slowly; remem- bering that violent cooking of California fruit gives much the result of scorching by the sun. A few baked pears add much to anybody’s luncheon.

Fies—For twenty years George C. Roeding and other fruit enthusiasts, of California, tried to raise figs equal to the Smyrna. Mr. Roeding was at last successful in getting at the secret of the complete fructification of the Smyrna fig and as a result California produces figs superior to the Smyrna, driving the latter out of the market. Mr. Roeding, aided by Secretary Wilson and Dr. L. O. Howard, of the Department of Agriculture, succeeded in 1900 in_ producing genuine Smyrna figs in California, after import- ing first the Smyrna fig tree, Ficus Carica, then the Capri fig or wild fig necessary in pollenization and finally the insect, the blastophaga wasp, which alone carries the pollen from one flower to another. The result is a fig, .California- Smyrna, or Calimyrna, as it is known—superior in flavor, size and cleanliness to the imported.

While the fig is used chiefly as it comes from the box, being a delicious fruit at any time, it is improved by being well soaked and slightly cooked. Like the raisin the fig is used in cakes, ete. For jams and marmalades, sauces and preserves the fig is unexcelled, while recently crystallization has taken a part of the finest product. Cured or fresh, the fig is medicinally

24

gentle laxative and shares with the olive the title of healing fruit. The fig is a nutritious food and in Southern Europe is a most important article of diet. As Americans come to be better acquainted with California fruits, the fig will doubtless become a factor in the domestic economy cf every household.

CHERRIES—California cherries very largely sup- ply the markets of the world for no other section grows them in such quantity nor of such quality. Aside from those shipped fresh under ice or canned, some are pitted and cured (dried) and others are cured with the pits in them.

Their preparation is exactly similar to that of the prune, except it is sometimes necessary to soak thirty hours, and sugar should be freely used. Don’t boil, but simmer till tender. Serve with cream and you will have a dish equal to fresh California cherries who wants anything superior?

OLIVES AND OLIVE Or~r—Olives have been grown in California for 135 years—since the advent of the mission fathers; commercially, since that pioneer, Elwood Cooper (now State Horticultural Commissioner), set out his orchards thirty-five years ago. The industry is now growing rapidly, there being two million trees in the State. Since the fruit is the finest grown and the methods of preparation scientific and cleanly, there is no longer an excuse for using imported olives or olive oil. The California olive is on the market in three forms: (1), ripe pickled olives; (2), green pickled olives; (3), olive oil. W ith Cali- ‘fornians, the ripe, pickled olives have on the whole the preference above the green.

Olives and olive oil are perhaps unrivaled as health foods. The olive as a table relish needs no comment, so well is it known. Every family should have a large bottle of California olives

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on the table to be served during every meal. The olive is most healthful and nutritious. In use of olives as of other California fruits these two points are often lost sight of. We eat them as palatable, delicious dishes and often seem to think, forsooth, because they are so pleasing they must be unhealthful—when they have no equals as nutritious foods and as health- giving foods. “Don’t eat too many, my child” should not be said to a youngster about Cali- fornia fruits any more than about breakfast foods or good bread and butter.

Olive oil is the great health maker. It is superior to the animal cod liver oil as a builder up of tissue. Nothing will make children rosy and strong so quickly. Its demulcent and mildly laxative qualities, its ease of assimilation through the stomach or the skin, its great value as a natural food, its reconstructive properties, make its use in fevers, tuberculosis and similar wasting diseases, in nervous troubles, in diseases of children and above all in stomach troubles, invaluable.

Use California olive oil on dry bread, on fish fresh or salted, on vegetables, on meats, on salads. A salad with olive oil stands as a luxury alone. If your children do not grow satisfactorily, give them olive oil and plenty of it. Nothing has so many substitutes or adulterants as olive oil. Avoid these, especially cotton-seed-oil. mixtures, as you would poison. Buy only the high grade California oils with established reputations put up in the olive growing sections of the State.

Tue Date—California dates are becoming a better known article of commerce as the increase in knowledge of the requirements of the date palm become known. In a little while this fine and nutritious fruit will, like the fig, be food for many who look to California for their fruits.

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THe QuincE—This fruit reaches perfection in California, a quince weighing a pound being a common article. For preserving and jelly-making the California quince is unequalled.

CHAPTER IX

Oranges, Lemons and Grapefruit

Of citrus fruits, the golden orange of Cali- fornia is king. All over the United States the Seedless or Navel or even seed oranges of Cali- fornia find a welcome more general and more hearty than that given any other fruit. Ripen- ing in the northern part of the State in Novem- ber and in the south just before Christmas, they are in the market practically the year round, being sweetest and best in the spring months.

Here permit a suggestion and a prescription which will cost nothing. Instead of spring mecicines and sarsaparillas, so called, have a box of juicy California oranges in the house. Eat one or two before breakfast each morning, or “serve sliced with sugar at breakfast. Eat one or two more in the evening—and you will be happier and healthier in the changes that spring brings than if you had a barrel of sarsaparilla on tap and drank it with caution by the spoonful or with recklessness from a dipper.

Oranges won’t hurt you, but as a laxative and tonic, will do you good. Yet there is a reason that will appeal to you more than the medicinal qualities of the fruit; it is a fruit which eating day after day does not tire; like the prune habit, it grows and keeps growing. The house- hold that buys a box of oranges and disposes of it in two days, then has no more for two weeks, is to be pitied; but oranges are cheap as a food and as a luxury, and the household

27

that provides two or three a day for each member the winter and spring through will be the happier and healthier and none the poorer.

The luscious, delicious, large navel oranges are a delight to the eye and the palate; yet as sweet and juicy are the smaller California oranges. It is best to buy oranges by the box. Ask your dealer when a car is coming to town, and buy on arrival. This is much preferablé to purchasing by the dozen from a box opened in cold weather, especially. There is a delightful aroma about an orange new from the box and not over ten days from the tree in California, that! as) hard’ fe%excel.

The lemon is a California fruit par excellence, thriving to perfection in the ideal locations that frostless belts near salt water give it.

The charm of the lemon is in its delightful acid flavor, which makes it the best flavoring known. After all what equals lemonade as a summer drink?—a cool, refreshing drimk, very inexpensive, healthful and delightful. More lem- onade—less other concoctions, and the world would be better off. With lemons at present prices, the housewife may always have them in store, needing less of the “extract” which is neces- sarily more expensive. JBesides, the lemon is pure—just lemon.

The use of the lemon in the preparation of food is of so wide a range that it is not possible to print recipes here; every intelligent housewife knows how many articles of food a “little lemon” will help.

And a_ well-sugared lemon taken straight, especially as an aid in some diseases, is both pleasant and healthful.

Of citrus fruits other than lemons and limes, California has many. The lime (adapted to lemon uses), the citron (noteworthy for its candied peel), the banana (hardly a commercial

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fruit in California), the custard apple (a rich ice-cream, custard-flavored fruit), the chocho (a yam-like fruit), the guava (a fine jelly fruit), the granadilla (Australian passion vine fruit), the jujube (good for the confectioner), the loquat (a fine fruit for canning and preserving with cherry flavor), the persimmon (if you are from Virginia or the Orient, you know its epicurean quality), the pineapple (hardly a California com- mercial fruit), the pomegranate (a delightful fruit growing on a beautiful tree), the tree straw- berry, the tree melon, the alligator pear (the “mayonnaise” fruit, making salad in perfection), the tree tomato (try it stewed with sugar), the kai apple (for preserving)—these are minor fruits of California.

Grapefruit will be found one of the most healthful and appetizing of fruits for the break- fast table. It is usually prepared a short time before using by cutting the fruit in halves mid- way between stem and blossom ends. Remove seeds and most of the white membrane surround- ing the pulpy sections as this contains the bitter. Fill the spaces thus created with sugar. A teaspoonful of claret or sherry wine is consid- ered an improvement by many.

ORANGE SALAD—Slice sour oranges and bananas in equal quantities. Mix and put on ice for an hour. Serve on crisp heart lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.

GLACE ORrANGES—Peel navel oranges, remove all the white from them and separate into sections. Dip each in clear candy syrup, lay on a dish and sift powdered sugar over them.

ORANGE FILLING FoR CAKE—Take two oranges, juice and grated rind, two tablespoons cold water, two cupfuls sugar, two egg yolks and one of the whites. Place the oranges, water and Sugar in saucepan, beat yolks with the other tablespoon of water and stir in the mixture in

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saucepan. Cook one minute, stir in the beaten white of one of the eggs. Use when cold.

GRAPEFRUIT SALAD—Grapefruit must be peeled and after dividing into sections every particle of the bitter white membrane covering the pulp must be removed. Place on ice for several hours and just before serving add a French dressing and serve on crisp heart leaves of lettuce.

MARMALADE—Slice six oranges, lemons or grapefruit very thin; remove seeds if any and to each pound of fruit add three pints of water. Let stand twenty-four hours, then boil until the skin is tender. After standing another twenty- four hours add one pound granulated sugar to each pound of fruit and boil about twenty minutes or until it jells.

Guava JELLY—Prepare the fruit by removing the blossom end. Cover the fruit with water and boil same as other fruit; strain the juice through a jelly sack; add one-half pound granulated sugar to each pound of juice; boil until it jells. This makes a fine jelly in addition to being an excellent fruit for the table in its fresh state.

ORANGE SHORT CAKE—The orange makes a most delicious short cake. Peel the oranges, cut in small squares or thin slices, add a cup of sugar; allow to stand on back of stove while crust is baking. Serve hot.

LemMon SAaLap—Use the crisp, tender leaves of one head of lettuce; break them into pieces about an inch square. Slice two lemons very thin; remove pith and seeds, cut slices into eighths, sprinkle a tablespoonful of sugar over them. Then mix through the lettuce.

Lemon Pre—Two cups of boiling water, two cups of white sugar, two tablespoonfuls of corn- starch or flour stirred in. Boil just enough to thicken. When cool stir into this mixture the yolks of four eggs and one whole one weil beaten. Add two lemons, grated peel and juice.

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Beat the whites for a meringue and when pie is baked put it on top and brown lightly.

ORANGE PiE—Squeeze the juice from two large oranges and grate the rind, mix together and save out one tablespoonful. Beat together one- half pound sugar, and one-quarter pound butter; add yolks of six eggs beaten light, and the orange juice. Stir in the whites of four eggs beaten to a froth and pour the mixture into pie-plates lined with puff paste. Bake in a quick oven and when done spread with a meringue made of the two remaining egg whites, two tablespoons powdered sugar, a pinch of soda, and the tablespoon of juice; brown in oven. This will make two pies.

MAYONNAISE Dresstnc—Beat a fresh egg with a Dover egg-beater, turning the wheel twenty-five times, and after adding a tablespoonful of Cali- fornia olive oil, beat again with twenty-five revolutions of the wheel. Add another table- spoonful of oil and again beat twenty-five times. Continue adding oil and beating until the dress- ing is as stiff as you desire. If this rule is faithfully followed the dressing will not curdle. Flavor to suit the taste. A tablespoonful of juice from a California lemon (never use vine- gar), a scant teaspoon of salt, a good dash of black pepper, probably half a teaspoon, and a pinch of cayenne will be found a good proportion of condiments. The best results are obtained by using an egg beater with a wheel at least three and a half inches in diameter.

ORANGE SALAD—Lay thin slices of oranges on a round platter, and pour a liberal quantity of stiff mayonnaise dressing, made as above, over them. Add a layer of sliced oranges and a layer of dressing, finishing with a tasteful design of sliced oranges. This makes one of the most delicious of all salads, and can be made in winter when greens for salads are not at hand.

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ORANGE COCKTAIL (SHERRY)—Serve in a cock- tail glass. Fill glass nearly full of pure orange juice, with a very little sugar (pulverized). Add tablespoonful of sherry and serve rather cold.

GLENWOOD ORANGE SALAD—Peel oranges, and cut into small cubes about half inch thick. Serve with mayonnaise dressing on a leaf of head- lettuce.

ORANGEADE—To make two gallons of orangeade, add to three quarts of pure orange juice one of lemon juice and about one gallon of water. Sweeten to taste, and serve cold with chopped ice in tall glasses. This will be an absolute failure unless the lemon juice is added, as this furnishes the acidity and body for the drink without changing the color, which will be a beautiful yellow.

GRAPEFRUIT COCKTAIL (MARASCHINO)—Serve in cocktail glass. Fill glass nearly full of grape- fruit juice, with a little pulverized sugar, and stir until dissolved. Add tablespoonful of maras- chino, and serve rather cold.

GLENWOOD GRAPEFRUIT SALAD—Pare the grape- fruit and cut into small cubes. Serve with following dressing, and with border of chopped lettuce and sliced Japanese Comquot oranges, if possible: One teaspoon mustard, one teaspoon salt, two teaspoons flour, one teaspoon butter (melted), one and one-half teaspoons powdered sugar, few grains cayenne pepper, yolk of one egg, one-third cup hot vinegar, one-half cup thick

“So? cream. Mix dry ingredients. Add butter, egg, and vinegar slowly. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Cool and add to heavy cream, beaten till stiff. GLENWOOD LOGANBERRY PUNCH—One quart of Loganberry juice, one quart of lemon juice, one quart of orange juice. Add four quarts of water, and sugar to taste. If desired, add pint bottle of claret. Serve cold, with plenty of chopped ice.

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