Evening star., 1949-08-29
By Violet FouIkner
Food Editor


More notes on a Bermuda holi-
day: 1t was while browsing around
in one of the book stores in
Hamilton one morning that I
came across a collection OF typi-
cal Bermuda recipes, referred to
briefly in a previous column. They
were compiled by the ladies OF
Warwick parish. pounced on
it right away to add to my own
library. The first edition OF
"Bermuda's Best Recipes" was
printed in 1885, since then three
more printings have been run on
the presses due to popular de-
mand. There was lapse OF al
most 10 years between the third
and fourth editions when the war
years intervened.
The book contains more than
TOO recipes, all of which have
been carefully tested and recon-
mended by the 100 practical
housewives who contributed to the
collection. They have paid spe-
cial attention to local dishes and
the use of typical fruits and vege-
tables growing on the island. The
purpose of the book was to create
a fund to augment the income
of the Warwick Branch of the
Bermuda Welfare Society and to
assist needy persons in Warwick
parish.
Throughout the book are a
great many recipes for bananas
used in breads, fritters, puddings,
pies, salads, desserts and lunch
con dishes. This is easy to un-
derstand since you see banana
trees growing everywhere on the
island and, I was told, the people
are planting more and more trees
in preference to other crops.
There were nine different
recipes given for cassava pie which
is a necessary adjunct to a real
Bermuda Christmas dinner. Cas-
sava, you will recall, is the root
from which tapioca- is made.
Preceding the chapter on pies
(and this pie is a meat pie not one
to be served as a dessert) is an
interesting bit of history con-
corning the early use OF cassava
taken from some papers read by
Canon Tucker in st. Georges. 1t
is evident that back in 1913 the
cassava root was used in the max
ing of bread since a recipe
was included in a text ad-
dressed to the colonists OF the
period. 1t goes as follows: First
wash and scrape and cleane, or
pare away the outside. Then
CRATE the roote upon a crater. as
you do bread: get graters made OF
purpose, with holes, somewhat
bigger than ordinary. If you want
a crater, you may make shift
with rough pumice stone.
whereof you may find some upon
the Bayes by the sea side, or
with nayles broad pointed, driven
thick through a board. Presse
out the juice through a Bagge OF
hair . . then spread the grated
roote upon a clean cloth in the
Sunne to dry. That which will not
60 through the Sive, beat in a
Mortar till it be smann like meale,
and sift it againe. Take the sifted
roote, and strew 1t in a cleane
dripping panne and put it into the
oven, and it will bake in a quarter
of an hour. The oven must not be
too hot. You must not knead the
roote, but strew it dry, like saw
dust, almost an inch thick. II
you have no oven. you may bake
it on a Trivet, or three stones,
with a little fire. If you make a
great fire. it will not bake, but
crumble like saw-duSt; remember
to turne it three or four times,
unless you bake it in an oven,
then it needs no turning" 1t
goes on to say that no mention
is made here of cassava pie. This
was discovered in after years to
the great delight of their descend
ants and to U.s."
I could find no reference in the
cookbook to the fascinating ''for-
hidden fruit" that I sampled in
the garden of my friends. the
Gibbons. But I suspect this
strange, exotic fruit Is not widely
enough cultivated to merit space
in the book. This fruit reminds
you of a cucumber in shape and
color but there the resemblance
ends. It grows upright on the
tree after the manner Of an car