Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-04-14
JOURNEY AROUND THE TAPIoCA PUD
DING.

DIR. Bushwhaker folded his napkin, drew it
through the silver ring, laid it on the table, folded
his arms, and leaned back in his chair, by which
we knew there was somethingat work in his know
ledge-box. My dear madam" said he, with n
Metamora shake of the head, there are a great
many things to be said about that pudding"
Now, such a remark at a season of the year when
eggs are five for a shilling, and not always fresh at
that, is enough to discomfort ANYBODY. The Doc
tor perceived it at once, and instantly added. In
a geo3TdPhicdt point Of view there are many things
to be said about the pudding. my dear madam
he continued, take tapioca itself, what is it, and
where does it CONF from?
Our eldest boy, just emerging from chickenhood,
answered, 80 Chambers Street, two doors below
the Irving House."
True, my dear friend" responded the Doctor,
with a friendly pat Oh the head " but that is not
what | mean. Where" he repeated, with a oues-
uoning look through his spectacles, and a Bush
nod, does tapioca come from?"
Rio de Janeiro and Para ;"
"Hes, sir; from Rio de Janeiro in the southern.
and Para in the northern part of the Brazils. do
we get our taploca from the roots called the Man
dioca, Sotanically, the Jatyopha Ntnhot. or, as they
say, the Cassava. The roots are long and round,
like a sweet potato generally a foot or more in
length. Every joint Of the plant will produce it's
roots, like the cuttings of grapevine. The tubers
are dug up from the ground, peeled, scraped, or
grated, then put into long flexible sacks of rattan ::
sacks, SIX feet long or more, and at the bottom Of
the sack they suspend a large stone, by which the
flexible sides are contracted, and then out pours
the cassavaJulce IN a pan placed below to receive
it. This juice is poisonous, and very volatile
Then, my dear madam, it is macerated in water,
and the resIduum, after the volatile part. the poi
son, is evaporated, is the innocuous farina, which
looks like small grains of bread, and which we cal
tapioca. The best kind of tapioca comes from
Rlo, which IS, | believe, about five thousand five
hundred miles from New York so we must pur
down that as a little more than one fifth Of our voy
age around the pudding"
Eggs and milk" continued DR.. Bushwhacker
"are home productions but sugar, refined sugar
is made partly of the moist and sweet yellow sugai
Of Louisiana, partly of the hard and dry sugar o
the W est Indies. | will not 90 into the process o
refining sugar now, but | may observe here tina
the sugar we get from Louisiana, if refined anC
made into a loaf, would be quite soft, with largI
loose crystals, while the Havana sugar, su5iecte,
to the same treatment, would make Il white cont
almost as compact and hard as granite. But W,
have made q trip to the Antilles for our sugar, anC
so you may add fifteen hundred miles more for the
saccharine."
THAT is equal to nearly one third of the cir
conference of the pudding which we live upon
Doctor"
Vanilla" continued the Doctor, with whicl
this pudding is so delightfully."- favored, is a bea,
that grows Wild in the multitudinous forests o
Venezuela, New Grenada, Guiana, and, in fact
throughout South America. The long pod, which
looks like the scabbard of a sword, suggested tn
name to the Spaniards; cayna meaning scabbard
from which comes the diminutive vanilla, or it'll
scabbard-appropriate enough, as every one will
allow. These beans, which are worth from six t.
twenty dollars a pound, could be as easily cult
waited as hops in that climate but the i .dolenc,
of the people is so great that not one Venezuelan
has been found with sufficient energy to set GU
one acre of Vanilla, which would yield him a smal
fortune every year. No, sir. The poor poems, o.
peasants, raise their garabanzas for daily use, bu
beyond that they never look. They plant thei
= crops in the footsteps of their ancestors, and if l
had not been for their ancestors, they could prob
ably have browsed on the wild grass of the Liano
or plains. All. there are a great many such tob
hanging at the tail of some ancestral kite, even il
this great city, my dear, learned friends"
True, Doctor, you are right there"
Well, sir, the vanilla is gathered from the wilt
vines IN the woods. of goes the hidalgo, proud o
his noble ancestry, and tolls home under a back
load OF the refuse beans from the trees, after tn
red monkey has had his pick of the best"
And thus the Doctor passed round the entir
globe before he had completed the ingredients @
the tapioca pudding!