Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-08-30
PRACTICAL HINTs..
Edited by. Mrs. J.G. cONANT.

As was stated in last weeks paper we
continue below the extracts taken from
the articles by Miss Julia Colman as pub
lished in the Science of Health,
iSteaoed Iomatoes.-whofe, make a
handsome dish, Select the smaller and
prime sorts. the plum tomato if you
have it. First take the juice from large
tomatoes, say one pint; shred into it one
large onion; cover and stew gently fif-
teen minutes then strain and put the
juice back into the stew-pan. Add to
this small tomatoes unpeeleds enough 10
fill up the juice and stew gently half an
hour, or until tender; then skim out
the fruit, thicken the Juice to taste with
wheat meal, salt slightly, add teaspoon
full of lemon juice, If at; hand, and thy
me or bay-leaves if you like, pour over
the tomatoes and serve warm. Small
tomatoes may be canned whole for this
and other dishes. by putting them un-
cooked into the cans, filling with water
or tomato juice, boiling them half an
hour, and then sealing after the manner
of other fruit,
Peaches.-Do not bear so much cook
ing, though they are certainly firm
fruit used fresh. There are more OBJ.
jections to eating peach skins-both on
taste, than the skins of most other fruits
but the greatest objection to their use
whole at table is, that the juice stains.
| the napkins and table-cloths sadly, and
| that these stains, hardly perceived at
| first, are very dingy, and are removed
with difficulty. The use of red napery
is one remedy for this, and another is to
use old napkins and tablc-clOths during
the peach season.
This apparently trivial difficulty real
| ly often constrains the housewife
to serve the peaches already dressed.
An improved method of doing this lies
in scattering the sugar in with the fruit
as is sliced at once, into the dish from
which it is to be served. They should
not stand more than half an hour be-
fore serving, or they should be covered
very closely, as exposure to the air in
jures both their flavor and their appear
ance. Ripe and tender fruit only should
be served in this way. If it is hard and
green. stew it remorselessly. For COM
mon use, stew them whole, and the skins
if Objectionable, may be slipped aside by
the eater. At a certain degree of ripe
ness, between harp and soft, peaches
may be skinned by letting them stand a
few minutes in boiling water, and then
rubbing off the skins with a coarse tow
ell.
For drying, the same rules may be OBJ
served as for the smaller fruits excepting
the sealding. Very ripe fruit is not the
best for drying, unless 1t be squeezed out
and dried quickly into peach batter.
Preserve this in clean paper bags and
upon occasions it will make nice trav-
eler's dry lunch, with wheat meal bus
cult, or oatmeal or barley crackers,
In canning, the greas labor is to pare
| the frrit Sinca If will not mail raaIi1u
like tomato, we pare on a machine like
an apple. The quantity cauned is for
this reason often sadly limited. 1t is
better, however to put them up in their
skins, than to go without them. On ac-
count of the labor of pareing cook whole
and ladle into the cans. For nice work
and more tender fruit, boil after putting
into the cans. Add the required sugar
when the cans are opened.
1t should be remembered that the best
favored fruit is as much better for dry
ing and canning as for use fresh, and
that poor apples, peaches, pears. ETC.,
will not make good dried fruit. If bet
ter material were used, dried fruit would
be much more in demand than it now is.
1t would go far toward securing this
end, if the purchaser were able to judge
Of the quality by the taste anG appear
ance when buying, and this is perfectly
pfiicbicaDlo. buG- people WHO dfy Their
own fruit have no excuse for drying a
poor article The very fact that they
are putting so much extra labor upon it
should lead them to select the best in
quality, though not that which is over
ripe, especially among the perishable
fruits. If you wish to try convincing
experiment, dry few common coarse
pears and Bartletts, and compare them
when dry. The latter are both delight
full and economical; because, when
stewed, they not only have fine flavor,
but they require little or no sweetening
They are also admirable in puddings
: like the American plum pudding, instead
of the raisins. Those who are wise and
able to do so, will lay in supply. Cook.
ing green pears, like the Bartlett, often
develope flavor similar to that which
they have when ripe.
Cooking PearS.--There are, however
, many varieties of pears called" "cookine
pears" which are good for nothing unit
cooked; and the most of these are goot
: for nothing when cooked, unless 1t be tt
, absorb seasoning. l confess do, some
} times, when driven to the necessity O
cooking such pears, slice little greer