The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-21
CUCUMBERS WITHOUT POISON,
They May he Made Harmless and Yet
Keep Their Flavor.

The cucumber remains the attraction
and the terror Of the spring salad and thers
Is no agreement as to the way in which II
| can be served so that it will be eaten at It's
best and yet not necessarily be fatal to
health. To persons who cannot eat them
with impunity nothing is more poisonous
than the ordinary cucumbers Of the city
markets. Thevare old and stale and full OF
poison to any bit the strongest stomach.
Persons who cannot stand the sight Of an
ordinary cucumber can with imp,lnity eat
! fresh ones just out OF the garden.
F., 1t is just as possible to restore any har-
dened city cucumber to freshness and In
NERVOUSNESS with no loss Of flavor, although
few persons have the patience to give tho
salad the necessary treatment Restaurant
keepers are unwilling to take 80 much time
except, perhaps, the Germans.
They soak thinly cut slices Of cucumber
until they are soft. These are kept for
most of day in salt water and usually
parsley and sometimes chive is cut UP
in the salt water.
When the cucumbers are ready for eerv-
ing they are free from all poison and they
| are In q measure free from taste. There
is no denying. however, that they are di-
gestible.
Some persons who have eaten these Gu
cumbers in the German and Hungarian
restaurants like them better than the or
binary cucumbers served here. They lack,
however, the crispness which every Ameri-
can demands in salad.
This quality is retained by putting the
cut up cucumbers into Toe cold water for
half an hour before they are served. After
they have been they should be soaked
in salt water for at least five hours. Then
the poison is game, but the salad Is soft
and limp.
Put for half an hour just before they are
served into ice water, they will be white
crisp, tasteful and free from the power
to disagree with the most delicate stomach.
After being treated in this way they may
be served very prettily on plate In the
form Of the whole cucumber before it hos
| been cut.
To do this the slices should not be sep
arated in the salt water. hatpin run
sliced will keep it intact. Served in this
way with fish or as a salad the appear
ance Of the cucumbers 10 very attractive.
But to it the varieties of taste 1t Ia easier
to do more in salad when the slices are
not kept together
Cucimbers cut very thin. and Of course
soaked in advance, mix very deIctouely
with alligator salad, and 1t Is best in the
case of this combination to break away
| from the alligator pear salad rule OF using
| lemon juice and take vine gar.
| The taste Of the two Is not disstnilaf,
and there must be pungency IN the dress.
ing which alligator pears alone do not
need.
With thin scallions cut lengthwise the
cucumbers blend In way that any epic,ns
would love, and cucumbers with green
peppers, cut lengthwise, are combination
that offers some novelty after the inevitable
lettuce that most persons seem to think arc
the only salads in the market.
have brought delight to the persons who
like that fruit but have never found 1t posi-
BILE to make, even in ina gination, the figs
ordinarily sold bear any relation to the
fresh fruit. Those that have been stuhed
and are kept damp by some artificial means
are too wet and insipid to please any man
in the least bit captious about figs.
Nor are those to which additional flavor
has been added agreeable to the real cpl
euro of figs. Some Of them have nuts in
the heart of the dried fig and others have
cherries. They may be good enough as 3
sweet, but to the lover of figs they are not
attractive.
Nothing has come so near the real article
as the figs that have recently been brought
here. They are not cheap. There are only
freshness and delicate flavor of fig that
had ripened in the sun and been picked
from its branch only few minutes before.
So one lis almost reconciled to paying fifty
cents for the delicious six
--