D

DANDELIONS.

The juices and salts of the dandelion exert a stimulating influence over the whole system, helping the liver, kidneys and bowels. The fresh leaves are an excellent addition to salads, but should be quickly grown and partially bleached, otherwise they are intensely bitter and tough. The flowers also, which grow freely in the springtime, are a good addition to salads.

Dandelion Tea.

Chop finely or bruise 2 ozs. of fresh young dandelion leaves. Pour over them 1 pint of boiling water. Let stand 2 hours in a covered vessel and then strain for use.

A wineglassful can be taken cold three times a day, or this quantity can be added to a breakfastcupful of hot water and drunk as a tea.

To make a Dandelion Decoction.

Add 4 ounces of finely chopped or well bruised fresh green dandelion leaves to 1½ pints of water. Boil the liquid until it measures a pint, then strain and use in the same way as the tea. This is a stronger preparation than the tea.

Dandelion Coffee.

This is a fairly pleasant beverage, and closely resembles ordinary coffee in taste. It is especially advantageous when tea or coffee are found to disagree. It is an excellent drink for dyspeptics, as it stimulates all the organs of the body and also exerts a cleansing action upon them.

The roots are usually dug up in October, dried, cut into small pieces, carefully roasted and ground.

To make it add 1 teaspoonful of the roasted dandelion coffee powder to ½ pint of boiling water, bring just to the boil, strain, and serve, adding milk or cream if desired.

DATES.

The distinctive feature of the date is its large sugar content. This sugar is of a mixed kind, being partly fruit sugar, and partly cane or invert sugar. The presence of this latter makes the date somewhat difficult of digestion in cases where the power of digesting cane sugar is small. Dates go well with nuts of all kinds. They are better assimilated when eaten with fresh green salad.

On account of their sweetness, dates have at times been used for preparing a coffee by drying and roasting them in a slow oven or kiln. So made, the resulting powder must be kept in an air-tight tin, otherwise it will absorb moisture, and become caked.

The stones of dates also have been used, after careful roasting, to make a coffee, but the grinding process is difficult, owing to the intense hardness of the stones.

In the deserts of Arabia and northern Africa the date is a food of immense importance and frequently constitutes the sole food of the Arabs when travelling. Even the stones are pulverised, and fed to the camels. In the East, the date palm bears the title “the tree of life”: its length of life and fertility are certainly astonishing.

It is not necessary to pay a high price for good dates. The Hallawi, Khedrawi, and Caliphat varieties are the best, having the softest fibre and thinnest skins, and their price is moderate, the Hallawi, for instance, being quoted by one well-known London store at 1s. 6d. for a 7 lbs. carton.

Date Decoction.

Add 1 quart of water to 1½ lb. of washed and scalded dates. Allow the dates to soak for a few minutes. Then, with a potato masher or something of the kind, break up the dates until the water has reduced them to stones and fibre. Strain off the liquor and heat it to very near boiling point. Add cream or milk, according to taste. This makes an excellent drink with about half milk. To those who lack energy it will often bring about surprising results. (Bernarr Macfadden.)