Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-27
THE GROCERY TRADE.
The Warm Weather Has Doomed the
Sale of Light Food Articles.
FRUITS ARE IN GREAT DEMAND.
Olives Rapidly Becoming the Pickle Most
Commonly Eaten.
SOME DAINTY DISHES FOR EPICURES

A grocery store, generally speaking, is
considered very prosaic place, but one
in Pittsburg was found anything else but
prosaic or monotonous Saturday afternoon.
1t was redolent with the fragrance of fine
coffees, spices and fruits, and filled with
fashionably dressed ladies, who were in
clined to chat with each other as they made
their purchases Of dainties that were to
delight the appetites of. the folks at home.
The warm weather has affected the grocery
trade to slight degree, but not so much in
quantity as in quality. The lighter, more
easily digestlble articles are in demand more
than the heavier articles of food. Fruit has
had an unprecedented sale this winter, both
preserved and fresh, and a very tempt
ing display is made of both kinds.
Our grandmother's fruit closet is certainly
rivaled in the display of preserves and
pickles put up in the most attractive little
glass jars that bear a wouldn 't-you-like-to-
taste-me expression that is almost Irresistible.
In such perfection are these dainties now
manufactured by different ladies in the
East that very few housekeepers spend the
hot summer days in experimenting the
preserving and picking as in olden times.
Miss Martin, of Auburn, is one of the
most successful wholesalers in the United
States. She is a maiden lady, and some few
years ago when her iather died and left their
home, known as Willowbrook, with heavy
mortgage, she and her sister undertook to
redeem it and cancel the mortgage.
THEIR TRADE DOOMED.
Commencing with local trade for fruits
and cakes of all kind it has gradually en-
larged until she does a substantial business
in all the large cities this side of and includ-
ing Chicago. The little white labels on her
productions all bear, besides the name of
the fruit, her initials, NJ. w. NJ, and serve
as a guarantee for the lusciousness of the ar
ticle, whether cakes, of which she makes
any variety, fruits, pickles or catsups.
While enjoying the busy scene the store
presented with its panorama of customers,
its busy clerks, who with the proficiency
gained by long practice could apologize to
the lady whose order for granulated sugar
didn't materialize, or make a neat, compact
package out of anything in the grocery line,
the telephone bell struck the ear of the re-
porter.
"Hello! helloP' first with a rising, then a
falling infection of the voice; then, fail
ing to get a reply, well! well r.
was ventured in the elocutionary style
to which there was a response evil
IDENTIFY, for the telephone in the store
went on to say, Eyes, ma'am, wait one mo-
ment and I'll see." A short conversation
with the proprietor, and he was back at the
telephone with Hello Why, we haven't
any Deerfoot farm sausage, and won't have
until it gets colder"
To the interrogative look in the reporters
face, the proprietor of the store, who was
doing the honors of host, said: 'That sau-
sage is great favorite With the citizens OF
this burg. 1t costs about 80 per cent more
than the home production, because it is
maze of such highly intellectual swine.
INTELLECTUAL HOGS.
"Deerfoot Farm is short distance from
Boston-that alone insures an aesthetic at
mosphere. Then it is the home OF Burnett,
a son-in-law of Longfellow, who is an en-
thusiast on the subject of pork raising and
pork products. Could anything in the
shape of eatables have more genuinely in
tellectual recommendation than the Deer
foot sausage has? Why, it is stated the
members of the swine family all have dis
tincG names, and are educated to read and
write before they are considered fit subjects
for this delicious sausage"
While the reporter was wishing that a
certain boarding house landlady would be-
come philanthropist and assist in the edu-
cation OF her boarders by serving them with
some of the lightfooted sausage, spritely
little lady walked up and gave an order for
some Queen olives.
"OIives," said the genial proprietor, "are
rapidly becoming the pickle OF the age, and
though they cost about twice as much as the
ordinary pickles, are sold in very large
quantities. The Queen is the finest, and is
a Spanish olive, then comes the French and
Italian"
Cheese" said a young, business-like
clerk to tailor-made girl who was evidently
doing the ordering for mamma, "down this
way, please. Here is the Goshen cheese.
which has a cosmopolitan reputation, the
Edam cheese from Holland, made in the
shape of the globe, salty cheese, and the
pineapple cheese, that makes very pretty
ornament for the table, and is between the
Edam and the Goshen, neither as soft as one
nor salty as the other"
NO CALL FOR DRIED FRUIT.
In reply to query as to whether people
were beginning 10 express any desire for the
old fashioned dried fruit it was learned that
so far there had been no call for it in that
particular store, and it was very doubtful if
it would ever be used again. The eYapor-
ated fruit is so much cleaner and more nat |
ural. In the process of evaporation, which |
takes but three or four hours, nothing is !
taken from the fruit but the juice, and when |
the water necessary Ior cooking is |
added to it the fruit assumes an |
appearance and taste very similar |
to that of fresh fruit cooked. The evap-
Grafton is ceomplished by the hot air pro- |
cess, and some sulphur is used for bleaching |
purposes, but not enough to injure the flavor
OF the fruit.
The latest thing in the grocers' line is a |
delicious preparation known as Blooker's |
Dutch cocoa, which comes from Amsterdam, |
Holland, and is entirely free from the oil |
that has heretofore been an attribute of all |
of the cocoas or chocolates, and is such an |
indlgestible Ingredient. "Kornlet'' Is an
other recent manufacture, and is nothing
more nor less than the milk of sweet corn |
extracted from the cob and kernel, but it is
an excellent thing by good cooks
and chefs in the manufacture of corn fritters
and corn cakes.