The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-10-12
NUTS.
Some Interestfng InfOrmfNon Con-
corning Different Kinds Of Edible
NmaS


Nuts.
Nuts are but seeds, and different from
fruits in having hard shells without any
soft or pulPy Enclosure. From the
earliest times nuts, especially acorns and
chestnuts, have been used for food. and
at the present day in southern Europe
chestnuts form large portion of the
food OF the laboring classes. who. besides
eating them raw and roasted, make pud
dings of them and poIenta for pastry.
The chestnut is the most farinaceous and
the least oily of all the nuts, and there.
fore 1t Is the most easy of digestion, but
1t requires boiling or roasting to burst
the starch cells and render it digestible.
The chestnuts Of southern Europe are
far superior in size and perfection to
those that grow in colder climates.
Though little used on our tables. they
make delicious desserts.
The walnut is q native of Persia. and
It's fruit is much used in the green state
as pickle. This nut is very oily, and on
the continent its oil, when fresh, is used
in cooking as a substitute for olive oil.
In Switzerland the poor people use the
refuse matter after the oil Is extracted
for bread. Walnuts and hickory nuts
are often used by fancy cooks for short
ening and 1avoring cake; the addition of
these nuts makes delicious but very in-
digestible article.
Acorns from remote antiquity have
been used az food for man and animals
The ancient Britous lived mostly on
acorns; so, says Galen, did the Area
dams. They were prepared in many
shapes, boiled and roasted, dried and
ground and made into bread at present
they are chiefly used for fattening hoes,
deer and poultry, though in Norway and
Sweden they are boiled and mixed with
corn meal to make bread.
Hazelnuts and fiberts are the fruits
of the same tree, the former in its wild
and the latter in it, cultivated state
These nuts are quite free from oil At
desserts they are eaten with salt
Fresh roasted peanuts are very agree
able in their favor and quite nutritious.
Instead Of being munched between meals
in all sorts of places, if they were eaten.
at the table as a part of the meal and
thoroughly masticated they would prove
more wholesome.
p The cocoanut is 2 product Of one Of
the palms, and grows ahundantly in all
tropical regions. The kernel, in its fresh
state, is very nutritive, and when grated
makes excellent cakes or fritters The
milk of the cocoanut forms q delicious
beverage in its native country large
nut when fresh viii give a half pint of
milk. When it Is very young the pulp
Is 50 soft that it may be eaten with a
spoon, and the shell is 50 thin and trans
parent that it may be used as a lantern.
The oil obtained by pressing from the
kernel Is used for burning in lamps, and
for making soap There is no part Of the
tree but is employed for some useful
purpose, though with respect to fruit the
cocoanut is one Of the least productive
Of the palm tribe. One tree in good soil
produces about one hundred cocoanut-
, annually.
Sweet aImoLds are nuuitive, but diff
cult OF digestion. The brown husk that
surrounds the kernel Is unwholesome,
f. and on account of it. injusious qualities
almonds should always be blanched
This Is done 10y simply pouring water
over the kernels. Bitter almonds are
. poisonous to all classes of animals.
Though they do not contain Prussic acid,
yet, when chewed, a chemical change is
effected by which prussic acid is formed.
+ The essence Of bitter almonds is most
potent poison, thouehitisused extensively
for hayoring In the hands of a careless
OF ignorant cook it Is dangerous, and
there are a great many hayoriDgs that
could well take It's place altogether.