Evening star., 1905-11-04
NEGLECTED FRUITS.
Delicacies Which New Yorkers Might
Enjoy, but Don't, as a Rule.
From the New York Sun.


From the New York Sun.
Few New Workers know the true rich
ness of the New York fruit markets Al
most every year new fruits with peculiar
virtues, the special favorite of some portion
OF the city's polygot Inhabitants maize
their appearance in some part of the town.
Many of these are left to the particular
people who know them. Now and then q
visitor to the Italian quarter is betrayed In
to buying prickly pears and trying to eat
them raw and undressed. He never does fe
again. though bushels Of them are bought
and eaten by the inhabitants OF the quarter.
II the casual visitor would learn the art or
making prickly pears into salad he would
understand perhaps why the Italians like
them.
Another of the odd fruits of the italian
markets is pineapple, or more accurately,
pine cone. In form it is like the pine
apple with which everybody is familiar,
but in odor and color II is quite different
matter. 1t is very large pine cone, 70
thick and solid that IL often weighs as
much as two or three pounds. The biggest
cost from D to 10 cents, and the smallest
may be had at the rate of two for 8 cenfs
In Its natural condition IT looks as IL
you'd have to open IL with hatchet or
an oyster knife. Take IT home and place
1t for few days in a warm place, or, Il
you are In a hurry, put IT for fifteen min
utes in moderately hot oven. and Il
spreads all Its wings. Beneath each chtu-
like wing you find meaty seed, and this
is what the Italians eat. big cone Will
yield more than half a pint of seeds.
Figs are another neglected fruit, though
they are sold on all stands and in every
fruit store. Those who know buy them
in considerable quantities and make them
into delicious jams and preserves.
One of the best of these is a mixture Of
figs, rhubarb and orange peel, which ID
good as soon as 1t is made, and can be kept
in6pfnffelV in pronerly sealed yaSGp}g
Those who have never eaten branded fresh
figs have yet an interesting sensation before
them. The absurdly high price of fresh
figs in New York puts them beyond the
reach Of everybody save the millionaires
and the fruit-loving people of the italian
quarter.
Probably nobody in town except the peo-
pie of the Swedish colony ever eats the
Swedish equivalent of the cranberry called
lingon. Yet the fruit is imported by the
hogshead, and sold in quart jars with a
quantity of its own magenta red Juice at a
very moderate price. Competent judges
think 1t not so good as the cranberry, but
1t makes an excellent sauce with meats.
A good many native fruits are neglected
by New Workers.. Elderberries make an
excellent lam or jelly, and in the suburbs
may be had for the picking. There are
few better cordials than that made from
wild cherries. sugar and brandy, In equal
parts. Another simple luxury of the kind
Is prunes put up In claret, or II you will.
better still in Burgundy.
Huckleberries are common enough In the
New York market. but nobody in town
ever eats the old Adirondack combination
of fiapjacks and huckleberries. When the
combination is properly accomplished tho
berries thickly stirred into the batter
Then the fiapiack. which should meas-
ure not less than seven inches in diameter.
Is cooked long enough to get the berries
warmed through. With butter and sugar
the huckleberry flapjack is unsurpassed.
New Workers are wasteful in the matter OF
fruit as i'm other things. Tons of peaches
are wasted in the season by housewives
who throw away the parings. In the re-
gions where peaches are grown the vatne
of the parings is recognized. and they are
converted into jams. jellies and fascin-
ating conserve known as peach leather.
The name is not alluring. but the thing is
excellent. 1t is the parings sugared and
rolled into disks that look like slices of
rolled jelly cake In the same way the M
edible part of the watermelon is put up
with sugar as substitute for citron.
A really clever housewife could MI her
jam closet for the winter by using the odds
and ends of fruit that well-to-do New
York family throws away.