Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-04-25
RiN.

There is by no means inconsideraDloi
number of persons who find potatoes as
m article Of food distasteful or even
obnoxious to digestion--some are UNI,
able to eat them, and in the State in
which they are often eaten, sodden,
rather than boiled, they form q grave
charge for any digestion not OF the;
strongest. They are only good when
very good.
tato has various considerations to rec
ommend it, chief of which is its far
greater digestibility, but, if the prepa-
ration of it is that generally given it by
our cooks, it will certainly never dis
place the potato. 1t is, in fact, never,
In this country, treated with the least
regard for its sterling qualities-if not
boiled into insipidity and sent on the ia,
bile . tasteless mass, half 'granule and
half paste, it is boiled intermediately,
and then, the water being drained oil,
1t is made into rolls, and fried as %7sssote,
or treated as the basis of q pudding, or
l(excellent use for it) used to thicken
the soup.
Now, rice forms the chief article of
the diet of more millions probably than
do wheat and potatoes together. and OF
people WHO, whatever may be their
Standing in the scale of civilization, by
which we measure ourselves and find
our number on it "a l." are in many
respects our superiors. The mild Hin
doc, the patriarchs of all existing civ
iization. the Chinese, the Anamite, the
Fellah, are not the only representatives
of the might of King Rice, but the en-
tire Turkish Empire probably eats rice
twice a day on an average, and has for
centuries done so, going out to conquer
on the stamina of it with as much ia
matte patriotism as if it had fed on
frogs or roast beef. or even on hog and
homhy. The porters of CONSTANT
nopla, who are as a class unrivaled for
physical strength, scarcely eat anything
but rice, except at the great feast Of the
two Bairams, when, if ever, a Mussul-
man feasts on all that is not forbidden.
The pilaf is an indispensable dish at
every Turkish dinner, and until a man
has eaten one, properly made, he does
not know how delicious rice
can be made. There are various
forms of pilaff, all somewhat resemb-
ling the Italian risotto, whichis in fact as
much like pilaf as a boiled potato is a
baked one. The best variety of it is
made as follows: OF good Il (south
Carolina is best) take, for one measure,
four of good chicken broth, wash the
rice in cold water, drain and put it into
the hot broth, and let it boil fifteen
minutes, or if the rice is very hard and
rather old, twenty; then let it stand
near the fire where it a neither boil
o burn, undisturbed, but just below
the boiling point, until the broth is all
absorbed and the grains of rice will fall
from the spoon, distinct, and without
any tendency to adhere together, so that
the goul-wife in the Arabian Nights
story should have no difficulty in eating
it slowly grain by grain. The time it
should stand at the fire unstirred by
ebullition or spoon, will vary somewhat,
but ought not to be more than from ff-
teen to twenty minutes longer. The
seasoning may be according to taste,
and q spoonful of tomato sauce (con-
centrated and highly sailed tomato,
much used in the East) is often added,
but this is not needed. This pilaf is
sometimes served with small birds
boiled with it, and a variety may be
made with mutton broth and collops of
mutton mixed through the rice. The
poorer classes make it generally in the
same manner, but with water instead
of the broth; and another still
is to fry the rice dry in butter, until it
is of a pale brown, when it is boiled as
before, but not so long, as the cooking
in the butter facilitates the operation.
In every case the ebullition period is
not continued beyond the point at
which the rice moves freely with the
fluid as it boils, as it should not be
broken in the grain. To this butter-pa-
Lift the tomato sauce is generally added.
The Italian risotto is clumsily-made
pilaf, boiled much longer and in lar
ger quantity of water, and with cheese
grated owe it when dished. 1t is, IN.
like palif, pasty, and has absorbed all
the water it will hold. 1t is never so
delicate as the pilaf in any form.
The use of rice in sweet dishes in the
East is generally in the form of risogalo,
rice-milk, which is made by boiling the
rice in milk, sweetened and slightly
thickened with r~ice-four, so that when
cold (and it Is always eaten cold) it will
be stifish; and when sufficiently cooked
it is served out into saucers, and CHINA
mon powder being busted over it, it is
put away in the cupboard until wanted.
One CUP of rice to six of milk, with q
large spoonful of rice-tiour, ought to be
a good proportion; but this will vary
somewhat with the rice, and with the
milk as well.-M. Y. Evening Post.
The Electric Light for domestic nse.