The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-26
CONFECTIONERY IF
 OTHER COUNTRIES The Snow-W Sweet and Solid Biscuits
 of China. MEXICAN SwEETMEATS The Ancient and Modern Ball-Butter of the
 Tartars.

Only one nation to my knowledge makes a point of putting up lines of snow white biscuits or crackers, To produce them, they just use the rice hour-whitest of all Hours. The pure white goods are always made very sweet and solid-sometimes quite hard, in fact. The sweetening agent is just the sorghum sirup peculiar to China, For it is only the Chinese who seem to affect this snow white cereal confectionery. Our own American whitest crackers would look dingy white in comparison I first came across these during travels in the Ori- ent in i95-96. but never cared much for their peculiar ricey intenselyrsWeet taste-almost reminding one more of candy than of confectionery.
 IWhy the Chinese should rival each otaer in the production of these snow white biscuits never learned, but be- lieve it is only fad. Possibly one req son is this: The Chinese are much gi.on to bestowing presentation boxes of t,cge snow-white crackers, The boxes are snugly lined inside with the crude-woven, but exquisitely beautiful light-as-air silk known as woven snow"-a fabric inimitable outside of the Orient. It is so called because the weave resembles the irregular effects of wind-driven snow as we sometimes see it on snow-swept fields, purely fanciful na1ne-for as if there could De such thing as woven snow!"-- yet sufficiently expressive
 Now, these woven-snow' lined confectionery boxes must have a snow-white confectionery to match, as ordinary crackers would look dingy or ''untidy" therein. Such the explanation vouchsafed by the captain of one of the China steamers as we were one day passing through the charming In- land sea of Japan
 A couple of specimens of this unique Chinese confectionery silk "coddling" brought home with me. It's remark able feature is that 1t will--being made @ of raw ungummed silk--last more than a decade stand a hundred wash ings and yet never shrink--not even a little; while 1t ever retains it's chaste and -driven-snow effect which has earned for 1t the singular name of woven snow"
 A peculiar contrast from this land of oddities is the biscuit of China which is a iet-blacl5 cracker. It is made of carbonized cracker-dust, deprived Of all taste of burning" which would be extremely disagreeable, and slight ly sweetened. In the dark, you could not tell the difference between it and an ordinary medium-sweet cracker. 1t is much esteemed by the Chinese for their-what corresponds to our-af- ternoon tea in fact, a supply--sufff- cient for the following day--is often dropped into the tea-caddy the day previous, to use when 1t absorbs con siderable of the fragrant odor of the tea with which 1t is destined to be served. This peculiar absorption prop erty is due to the aforementioned carbonized cracker-dust used as the basis of manufacture, The odor also limparts a tea-like taste to the biscuit,
 The Chinanan is wonderfully strong" on confectionery, but lacks the art-adornment of the Italian, or the powdered-glass veneerings of the Parisian. The oriental prefers his choice tropical fruits in the juice; the Italians go in for initiating them in sugar and mystery
 Probably the most unique thing in the Italian patiseria trade-apart from their really clover and able fruit imi- V as sanguinaeio. For all the world this looks like a glossy new black sausage or black pudding, but is much softer. | It is used, especially during the cool months, in the better class of confec- tioners stores throughout Italy for quickly making cups of chocolate for customers, for consumption on the spot. A little is squeezed out at time, sufficient for cup, on the same prin- ciple as the lead-container artists col ors; the hot water is added, and pres to! your cup of chocolate Is ready without even need of sweetening.
 F'or--to keep it always in paste- form as the cocoa-beans are being ground, with their natural butter-fat intact, between heated rollers, the in- spissated juice of the sugar-cane is ladded, insuring a perfect mixing. This is the sweetening agent, though many people still like to add sugar in the cup, Sometimes, but not always, lit- tie of one of the dark high-grade southern Italian wines, extra strong in alcohol, is added to the mixing in the cocoa mill as a slight preservative This peculiar skin chocolate is fea- ture in preservation worthy of note by Americans. The ordinary pig-casing is used for the bladder.
 In Mexico outside of the larger cities and towns, the people have nc other sweetmeats than the concentrat- ed-to-dryness sap of the sugar cane that is, crude sugar, But 1t is concen- trated to a peculiar shape and form like so many little laths, about ten cen timeters long by three wide, and near ly one centimenter in thickness. It is ot agreeable sirupy sweetness with the pleasant natural flavor of the cane well . retained. The color is rich-looking 1, ,o+ I.