The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-11-23

up with water in a wooden bowl. and
then boil the porridge in a copper ket-
tie When done, the stiff, brown mass
is poured out on the deal table, and at
ter cooling little it is sawed into slices
! py a tow string, a steel blade being
considered injurious to the flavor of the
porridge.
But If the family cook be in good
humor, she makes her household happy
by baking necci, which in color and
shape are very much like buckwheat
| cakes. They are tough, sickening
sweet, and very indigestible, yet they
are considered the "doughnuts" of an
Apennine kitchen.
The baking apparatus is as crude as
II is unique; it consists of round tiles
chlpped from mountain slate, and kept
III triangular rack in corner when
| not IN use, These tiles are heated in
the ashes of wood fire, and then COW
ered with chestnut leaves that have
been soaked in water to prevent them
| from scorching.
| Tile after tile is spread thickly with
the batter, and pressed into the stack,
| which holds them In place until the
stack is as high as the upright rods Of
the rack. After baking between the
heated tiles for q few minutes, the
cakes are served hot for supper, and
| what is left over will be eaten cold for
| to-morrow's breakfast.
| Hanging from the smoked rafters of
| every kitchen are great festoons Of
dried chestnut leaves, ready to line the
| baking tiles. The gathering and string
ing of these leaves in the autumn is the
work of the young folks, who make it
the occasion of much fun.
| Word gets abroad that stringing
| bee" is on hang at a certain house,
and soon after supper the rustic maids
appear with needle and thread. They
| string and chatter busily for an hour or
so, when the SWANS begin to drop in,
and dancing is in order. The music is
furnished by cracked fiddle or a
wheezy accordion, or by some obliging
| whistler
| One can scarcely speak of Apennine
peasantry without emphasizing the fact
that for ten months in the year their
bill of fare altemates between chestnut
porridge and chestnut cakes 1t is
small wonder then, that in October
and November freshly boiled chestnuts
are welcomed as dainty novelty. The
daily household problem ceases to be,
"Porrtdge or necci?" and becomes in
stead, "Balotte or tigliate?"
Balotte are chestnuts which have
been boiled in the hull, and tigliate are
those which have been hulled previous
to being boiled in water. and seasoned
with salt and fennel seed. On remon-
strating with woman who had pre-
pared a half-bushel of tigliate for the
| supper of her family of six, l was 81
fenced by the confident reply, ooh no,
they won't hurt them, because the fen
mel seed will help them digest"
Next morning I counted heads, and
was relieved to find the family in full
force. Nevertheless, the tax on the d.
gestive organs is very great, and the
commune doctor assures me that dys-
Poetic troubles complicate every dis
ease to which the italian mountaineer
is subject, and render many case
hopeless from the first.
'"The lean and hungry look which
every mountain peasant wears, togeth-
err with a half-famished CLEAN in his
hollow eyes, tells pitiful tale Of the
lack of nourishing food, although he
may have never known actual hunger.
pervade the italian cities, for in the
winter the chestnut-vender IS found at
every other corner. Many a child on
his way to school adds cents worth Of
roasted chestnuts to his 1unch-a cents
worth varying from twenty to ten, as
the season advances The chestnuts
are as large as English walnuts, and Of
two coarse a flavor to be eaten raw;
I. =, In, TOR rs
like sweet potatoes.
Boiled chestnuts, passed through a
sieve and served with whipped cream,
form popular dessert at the big no.
tells; but neccior chestnut cakes can be
relished by few except those born to an
appreciation Of them. A Roman beg
gar or Neapolitan lazzarone will turn
up his nose at necci as food fit for hogs
only; but the Apennine peasant, wan
dering far from home, longs for them
like topper for his cups.
A poor mountain mother once asked
me to carry down some home-knit
socks to her soldier boy in Rome. I
felt inclined to smile when the recipient
opened the bundle in my presence, and
came upon some fabby necci several
days old. With Tuscan courtesy he
Immediately asked me to partake, and I
read in his eyes the keenest enjoyment
of this reminder Of his Apennine child
| hood.
Since then, when / see a man with a
tray Of chestnut-cakes hanging about
the barracks, no longer look upon him
as a petty hawker, who is trying to
wheedle the poor soldiers out of their
scanty pence; to my enlightened vision
| he seems philanthropist, seeking to
refresh the homesick mountain boys as
with a Whit of their native air.-Olive
May Eager in Youths Companion.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH DRIVING.