NEW DRIED FRUITS.

By DORA DE BLAQUIÈRE.

Most of my readers can recall, I fancy, the days when we had only prunes and Normandy pippins in the way of dried fruits. The dried apricots, apples, and plums of the present day are very modern and recent gifts to a grateful world. So recent are they indeed that the ignorance about them is very great; and, strange to say, the grocers who have them for sale have not been supplied as they should have been with small printed papers describing how to cook them.

In using the term “dried fruits,” you will notice, I hope, that I am dealing with what may be called stewing fruits; for, though we stew, or can stew, raisins, figs, and even currants, I believe the first treatment of these fruits is not to cook them in that manner. Raisins and currants speak to us more distinctly of our Christmas mince-pies and plum puddings, and of a regular dessert dish throughout the year in some houses, than of any other kind of cooking.

The stewing of raisins was introduced, I believe, by vegetarians, and in this form with a flavouring of lemon-peel. They are not at all bad when added to a milk pudding or some blancmange.

The stewing of dried figs comes almost under the same description, and their chief objection lies in their extreme sweetness, which is a cause of quite unmerited and needless toothache at times. The best way of cooking figs will always be in the way of a fig pudding, which is an excellent though rich dish.

Dried apples have always been a great household requisite in cold countries like Canada and the northern states of America, and I remember that the making of them constituted a very large part of the many winter preparations which used to be necessary when the country was less civilised than it is now, the fruit less plentiful, and the means of keeping it very imperfect.

It was not always easy to guard against the frost, which penetrated the ground to a depth of four or even five feet when the winters were too snowless. On these occasions when the earth is left bare and without her warm coating of snow, the frost has been known to penetrate even six feet into the ground in exposed places. This fact is verified in cold countries like Canada in a very painful manner when graves have to be dug. So difficult is this that in large cities where there are many to dig a cemetery hall is built to contain the bodies of those who die in the winter, so that the frost may be out of the ground before the graves are dug.

This will explain to you why in Canada all kinds of root crops and apples must be so carefully guarded from frost; and when the country was less settled, and even to-day in the less inhabited parts, the apples are still dried in a primitive manner. They are peeled generally by a small machine, then quartered and cored, and strung on long threads by means of a coarse needle. Then they are dried, either near the stove or else in the sun; but this last is not often possible, because of the lateness of the season. The apples thus dried are very good, but if cooked carelessly are apt to be rather tough.

In Italy figs are dried in the sun by the peasantry. Each fig is cut open, but not divided, and carefully dried. Then, when dried, they are closed together so as to look like whole figs again, and strung one by one on the long flexible mulberry twigs. They are very good and are less sweet than the dried fig of commerce, as no sugar is added to them in drying.

Last year I saw quantities of figs dried by the peasantry in this manner for sale in Switzerland, where they appeared to be quite a novelty. I could not find out where they came from; but I daresay from the Italian canton of Ticino, or, as the French call it, Tessin. This is, of course, warmer than its sister cantons on the northern side of the Alps. I have not seen these yet in England, but there have been some Californian dried figs that were very good for eating, and perhaps we shall see more of them in the future, as the market for them grows more assured.

Dried figs are said by the scientists to contain nerve and muscle food, heat and waste, but to be bad for the liver. The same is said of dried prunes, but they afford the best and highest kind of nerve or brain food. They also supply heat and waste; but they are not muscle feeding.

All stone fruits are said to be injurious for people who suffer from the liver and should be used rather cautiously.

Apples are thought a most valuable food in every way but one—they do not afford staying properties, but they supply the highest nerve and muscle food.

If you be fond of almonds, you may like to know that they afford no heat, but give the highest brain, nerve, and muscle food. I hope this applies to the salted almonds which are so popular.

The process of drying is called “desiccation” or, usually in America, “evaporated.” The original desiccator is an apparatus much used in chemistry and physics and the word comes from the Latin desicco, “I dry up”—meaning that the water is evaporated out of the fruit or any substance to be dried. This idea was carried out into the drying up of the water and fruit juices for commercial purposes. An oven with trays in it to hold the fruit is one of the forms of using heat, and in Lower California the heat of the sun is utilised for the drying of prunes. Some time ago there were notices of the commencement of this industry and the importation of work-people from the neighbourhood of Tours.

The ordinary prunes sold in the shops are the fruit of the St. Julian plum, a common species which is grown everywhere in France for the purpose. The best French or dessert plums come from Provence, and the Californian plums must be of the same variety as the Brignole plum. The latest competitor in the English market is Bosnia, and those which I have tried were quite as good as the French plums. Under Austrian rule, Bosnia has developed wonderfully, and the climate is a delightful one, well suited to fruit growing.

The best of all the French dried prunes come from Provence, the land of poetry and romance. They are made of the kinds of prunes called the Perdrigon blanc, and Violette, and Prune d’Ast. The two former come under one category and are called Pruneaux de Brignole, from the place where they are prepared, the small town of Brignole, in Provence, a name I am sure you will have often seen on the boxes of prunes used for dessert. The common kinds of prunes are gathered by merely shaking the trees; but those for preparing as French plums must be gathered in the morning, before the sun is up, by taking hold of the stalk without touching the fruit and laying each plum very gently on vine leaves in baskets. The latter must be filled without the plums being allowed to touch each other, and then they are carried to the fruit-room and exposed to the sun and air for three or four days, after which they become quite soft. The next process is to put them on trays into a spent oven and shut up quite closely for twenty-four hours. Then they are taken out, the oven is re-heated, and made rather warmer, and the plums are put in again for the same time; then they are taken out, carefully turned over, and the oven is heated to one-fourth hotter than it was before, and the plums are returned to it again for the third time, and after remaining the twenty-four hours, are taken out and left exposed till they become quite cold. Then comes the most curious part of the process, which, when once explained to me, was a solution of an enigma over which I had much wondered, namely, why the stones of the good French plums are loose and unattached, while those of the common prune are so much more fixed in the fleshy substance of the fruit. This part of the process is called “rounding,” and is performed by turning the stones in the plums without breaking the skins, and the two ends are then pressed between the thumb and finger to flatten the fruit. Then they are once more laid on the sieves for drying and placed in a rather hot oven for one hour, the oven being closely shut. Lastly, they are put again into a cool oven, left for twenty-four hours, when the process is ended, and they are packed in bottles or boxes for sale and exportation. Now I have given this long account, taken from a recent authority, because I know my readers of the “G. O. P.” are world-spread, and because this is the kind of process adopted with any kind of dried fruit; and an ordinary brick oven for bread-baking can be perfectly well used for doing it. All varieties of the plum can, I am told, be dried in this manner, some, of course, with better success than others.

After the prunes come the kind which, I daresay, most of my readers have seen in the grocers’ shops, namely, the crystal or dried yellow plums, which are likewise said to be from California. They are so-called silver plums, and are yellow, not black, and were first seen in 1897, I believe. They require soaking over-night in just enough water to swell them, and the next day should be put into a prepared syrup, which has had a little lemon peel boiled in it, and very slowly stewed, without breaking them. I find a war rages about this question of soaking dried fruit over-night, as many people consider that long slow stewing is equally good, or better.

Apricots are amongst the dried fruits that have been introduced within the last few years; and although they may be a novelty to us, they have been used in the East in this way for centuries. The apricot grows well as a wall fruit in England, and is interesting because it was brought here and first grown in the gardens of Henry VIII. by his gardener, Wolfe, who was a Roman Catholic priest, and who brought it from Italy. Indeed, it was during the reign of this monarch, and the subsequent Tudors, that horticulture began to make such progress in England; and no politics made them forget the interests of their gardens, to which, as a family, they appear to have been much attached.

The dried peach we have not yet seen, but it is much used in that way in New Jersey, Delaware, and in the Southern States; but probably canning has rendered drying needless. Dried pears are also of ancient origin, and I find them excellent in the present day, though I consider they need careful doing. Any recipe for the stewing of winter pears will answer for dried ones; and they must be soaked over-night to ensure their being tender. It is well to remember that the less water used, the more flavour in the pear, and the syrup should not be very abundant.

And now we come to that most useful of all fruits—the apple. This has been dried in many forms, and canned as well. The most recent are the evaporated apple rings—the apple cut into rounds horizontally through the fruit. When these first came out they were called “Alden apple rings,” probably from the town or district where they were grown. They are said to be made from greenings—the best of American cooking apples—and one pound of the apples rings is said to represent six pounds of ordinary apples. The best recipe for cooking these is an American one, and in this the food is required to be soaked in a pie-dish in cold water—just enough to cover it—for four hours; then, without pouring off the water, add sugar, a little lemon rind or spice, and then put the dish in a slow oven and stew very gently till sufficiently cooked. If intended for a tart, soak as directed and stew gently in a slow oven for half an hour before adding the crust, or the latter will be done before the apples are sufficiently cooked.

The apples, which are dried whole, must be rather differently treated. Take about a dozen apples, place them in an earthenware or porcelain-lined vessel, and add about a pint and a half of water, and let them soak for seven or eight hours. Then add sugar, spice, and the rind of a lemon to your taste; put them all together as they are into a porcelain-lined saucepan, and stew gently for an hour. If a more recherche dish be required than merely the apples plainly stewed, a little whipped cream may be inserted in the place from whence the core has been taken, and some cream poured round them in a glass dish.

“It is simply absurd,” says a recipe writer in an American paper, “to soak evaporated apples over-night”; so, as this is a case of doctors differing, I must give the directions which follow. Place the evaporated apples in a saucepan, cover with water, and boil till done; flavour to taste, and use for sauce, tarts or conserve. Now this recipe I have also found good; and I know that the writer considers that soaking or leaving the apple rings too long in water renders them tasteless and vapid.

It seems strange that the subject of dried fruits, save and except the ancient pippins of Normandy, should be quite ignored in our cookery books; and yet there can be no doubt of their value as foods, and adjuncts to other things, at a time when fruit is dear and scarce. They are always inexpensive; a pound goes a long way, and, as a rule, if well done, they are liked by the little folks.

But alas, the general remembrance of stewed prunes, apples or apricots is enough to make anyone dislike them, sent up as they generally are in a slop of tasteless, coloured, watery fluid. If we only examine into the ordinary methods of cooking them, we shall see the cook washing them first in one water, and then in another; perhaps letting them remain for half an hour in soak, then putting them into more water, with a cupful of sugar in a dirty saucepan on the fire, where she boils it violently, and finishes it in half an hour.

Now, from beginning to end, this is all wrong. In the first place, you must remember that the evaporated fruit took a long time to do. The moisture was not removed from it in one hour, nor two, but took a long time. So if you want to restore it to them you must give them time also. Thus, perhaps, you will agree with me that the fruit must be soaked for at least twenty-four hours, especially in the case of apricots and peaches; and the water should cover the fruit to the depth of an inch. When you are ready to stew the fruit, take it out and put it carefully into a porcelain-lined saucepan; then pour the water in which they have been soaking upon the fruit, leaving at the bottom any dregs there may be. If not sufficient to cover it, you must add a little more, then give an hour’s very quiet boiling; and a few minutes before you remove it from the fire, add a little sugar, and use a silver spoon to stir it in. I prefer to take the fruit out when I add the sugar, for fear of breaking and spoiling the look of the fruit; and then the syrup is boiled up once or twice, and poured over the fruit. Peaches require rather more cooking than apricots.

Apples and pears need care in the cooking, and also in the flavouring; and the best thing for both is the juice and grated rind of a lemon. But before flavouring, you should taste the fruit after stewing, as you will then judge whether you should add sugar, or the rind of a lemon, and not the juice. The sugar should be put in first and thoroughly dissolved, and then the flavouring. If you flavour first, and sugar after, you will need double the amount of sugar. Prunes, raisins, dates, and figs can all be stewed in the same way; and if you will only remember that haste is not possible in preparing dried fruit for table, you will always be successful.