The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19

tinctures, syrups and cordials from the
bark of the dewberry root and of the
blackberry root. Housewives, in log cabins.
were good doctors in those old days. and
the bottle of blackberry cordial or syrup
was always at hand on the high ''mantel-
tree" next the household clock. Many old
cookbooks contained medical prescriptions
and tea made from leaves of 1.-The health
full blackberry" was advised to cure diges-
tive disorders and to allay fevers. a short
and curt formula for old-time blackberry
wine ran: Gather when ripe, on a dry
day. Cover with boiling water mash with
your hands, and let stand until pulp rises
and forms a crust. Draw off, and to every
gallon add a pound of sugar. Let work
for ten days and bung it down. Bottle in
six months Old English cookbooks give
liam Of raspberry and liam of goose
berry," but no lam of blackberry" No
fruit pies were known in England, only
''tarts with lids, tarts without lids, and
strung tarts'' Thoreau, in Canada,
mourned the absence of American pie. Only
one reference to blackberries occurs In an
English Cooks Oratle,'' of 1888; foot
note says, 1.-The native blackberry of this
country makes a very fine jelly and is
medicinal in complaints of children" In
DR. Mackenzie's Five Thousand Recipes
1S29-American edition from latest London
edition. $50 pages on "all the useful and
domestic arts"-the word blackberry, by
diligent search, is not found.
But the culinary genius Of the live Amer
lean housewife has long done ample justice
to the blackberry. wild or cultivated. Black
fe ;oax
the dish not quite even full, and to each
pie of size of soup plate add five large
spoonfuls of sugar. Dredge little flour be-
fore you lay on the upper crust" For black
berry jam or jelly the yankee Housewife"
offers no suggestion, but blackberry dump
lings are as stated: Make them to boil as
apple dumplings, but boil in a buttered
bowl, because Of the juices of the fruit.
Eat With cold sauce" Blackberry jam, in
Angelina Maria Collins's western House
Wife," 1851, demands "a pound of sugar to
a pound of fruit; boil fruit for half an hour
after washing it, add sugar and boil twenty
minutes" Southern cookery oracles of 1850
give full recipes for blackberry wines and
cordials, jams, jellies. buildings, pies and
dumpings. A few culinary fruit curios also
occur, such as blackberries baked with rice,
to be eaten with cream. Blackberry lum-
merry is made of ground rice, with stewed
blackberries stirred in, to be eaten cold
with cream: and blackberry mush'' Is an
incredible sort of boiled decoction, ascribed
In Buckeye Cook Book to Miss II. D.
Martin, New York city" Blackberry
roley-poley" and blackberry pudding sweet
ened with molasses are other old-time Ohio
delicacies. Minute pudding of corn meal
with canned blackberries stirred in consti-
tutes another gastronomic shocker. Hap
piest they, however. "the happiest of their
kind who have known the common but
superb blackberry ali the way along; they
have relished it by the roadside. loft the
twig." and, after its college education, have
greeted 1t at the modern market stall, or.
when desserts were on, in the poetic and
refreshing crystal dish.