The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-22

whettsd 70 tho pitch Of appreciation, and
b knows BY the Fragrance when she dinner
Except tie ham; cured In beechwood
smoke, We have no survivor OF the smoke
cookery. Yet all meats, most fshes and
some mol!usks are thus treated N many
parts Of the world. There y q refinsGaSns
woods will yield the most savory smoke
for the particular food thus to be cooked.
On the plateaus Of inner Africa they srnoke
the breast and shoulder Of lamb with careful
choice Of fuel aad the food = eIoel Ma..;
Guinea the finest delioaoy 10 tho small rook
oyster strung In rows on the ~ooaeoanut leef
nadrib n smoked over sanoalwood en-"
Washington andthe Potomac generally ara
session. Of the art OF planking, as though 1t
were their own great contribution TO the
best OF all the arts. In Australia the black
fellow planks every sort OF meat and brags
not at all about II. It 10 o crude perform
as thousS tSe ''I smoothsst hand carved
plsnks were used. This aboriginal takes q
slab Of bark, ourls It UP into q gutter at the
bottom. which also answers the purpose
Of q braoe to keep the slab fat. The gutter
juices thus collected the planked meat is
basted. A lizard or q fat snake thus planked
10 as fine eating as the most educated taste
could desire. Above all the marvels OF
cookery La the great economy Of fuel, neoes-
ssry In an almost desert "a land ID. Nth ~ wh asra
10 never larger than can be covered with
. saucer, and only a few chips are burning
at once.
Yet the tiny blaze Of the black fellow Is
by no means the limit Of fuel economy.
In many widely scattered regions Of the
earth cooks nave learned to get along with
out fuel altogether, an art that 10 possible
only in arid regions where there Ia no fuel
anyway. In such regions meat out into
strips and hung up In the sun dries to de-
yet without loss Of nutritiye value. This
supplies the jerked beef Of North America,
the charqui OF the continent to the south,
and the antelope biltong OF the African
veldt. In central Asia the same process Ia
applied to mutton and venison. -,
these good plain cooks the world around.
For the civilized there Ia coal, for the gen.
eral savage there Is wood. And In the tree
less regions into which the race OF men have
pushed for their habitation there are substi-
tutee the ingenuity Of which causes one TO
I there was a Great American Desert the
Indian nomad, the trapper and the explorer
found their only fuel over wide areas in the
buffalo chips, then Of unlimited abundance,
nov vanished entirely. Along the great car
avan 70, tes In arid Africa and Arabia the
valuable source Of fuel supply. In the
frozen north the Esquimaux do all their
cooking with seal oil, or whale oil II they
are so lucky as to catch one Of the larger
soepstone filed with oil on which floats a
tuft OF moss to serve as wick: 1t diffuses
enormou volumes Of fatty smoke and raises
the temperature Of the igloos. or textbook
hout es, to such a degree that the family
has to shed every last stitch Of clothing and
but It seems to bel satisfactory fuel.
On the Washington coast OF the Pacific
the native inhabitants are sadly put to
It for fuel over though they live in the
utmost abundance OF timber. 1t rains
there so often and 1t rains 80 hard that the
windfalls are all too w~aterlogged to burn.
For their fuel the coast Indians rely upon
an oily fish, the oolakan, or candle fish.
Each one is about a foot long when dried
and burns with q bright blaze. A single
Ash gives out great heat and as fuel is most
satisfactory.
the fire. even than the process which affords
| the jerked beef is that which gives the
islands Of the Pacific their staple food.
| This is effected by the water Of the sea,
| yet 1t still remains q cookery Of sorts. for
bread fruit, the yam. the taro, the banana,
each In It's season, Is scraped and beaten
| to q pulp and left exposed in the bot sun
for some hours until Y begins to feel pulpy.
Then pits are ~exoavated in the beach be-
tween high and low water marks, the pulp
Is shoveiled in and tamped down and q
heap Of rocks raised over all! Here with
the tide ebbing and flowing the pits are
left for months. The process Of fermenta-
ton begins at onoe in these delicatessen
silos, the salt Of the sea water oheoks the
process at q point which to the islanders
senses stops short of putref action. and In
the fermentation 90 much heat is generated
he to cook the vegetable paste. When
one Of these pits lie opened the tropio breezes
promptly disseminate a scent that Is loud,
tumultuous and unusual. Still, the stuff
ID very palatable, despite It's stink. For
that matter II smells no worse than the
DURHAM, and though that fruit Of the East
indies smells strong enough to call out
the Health Department 1t has such a deli
cious charm, even to the memory after years
have gone by, as to justify the Malay
proverb, aWho has DURAN eaten will DURAN
eat" with which they say farewell to the
traveller whose return they thus predict.
Suoh and 90 many being the scope Of
the art Of the good plain cook in widely
scattered regions Of the earth, one may
settle down to better content with the lady
who comes out from the intelligence office
to see whether she'll like the place. She
may not be able to bake prime ribs Of beef
in It's own bullock hide, she Is not likely
to cook with dry fish, but she's probably
doing the best she knows.