CHAP. I. CULINARY VEGETABLES. 113 



The following directions for making the preserve may perhaps 

 be found useful : 



Scald the tubers, wash them in cold water, and peel them 

 clean. This will take some three or four days to accomplish. 

 Make a syrup of the proportion of a pound of sugar to a pint of 

 water, into which stir gradually the beaten whites of two eggs. 

 Boil and well skim it. When quite cold, pour it over the 

 Ginger ; cover it up and let it remain so two or three days. 

 Then pour it off from the Ginger, boil, skim, and clarify, if 

 necessary, the syrup again, and when cold pour it a second 

 time over the Ginger, and let it remain three or four days. 

 Then boil the syrup again, and pour it hot over the Ginger. 

 Proceed in this way till you find the syrup has thoroughly 

 penetrated the Ginger, which you may ascertain by its taste 

 and appearance when you cut a piece off, and till the syrup 

 becomes very thick and rich. If you put the syrup hot to the 

 Ginger at first, it will shrink and shrivel.* 



Curcuma longa. 



TUKMEKIC. 



Huldee. 



Turmeric, of which such large quantities are used by the 

 natives for curries, may be always procured cheaply enough in 

 the bazar, and is rather an agricultural produce than one to be 

 raised profitably in the garden. 



The cultivation of it is carried on in the same way precisely 

 as that of Ginger or Arrowroot. The tubers are put down in 

 May, a foot or more apart, in rows. The plants are earthed up 

 when about eight inches high, and then require no further 

 attention till the crop is ready for taking up in the cold 

 weather. 



MARANTACE.E. 



Maranta arundinacea, 



ARROWROOT. 



Genuine Arrowroot, such as exported from Surinam and Ber- 

 muda, is the produce of the plant above named; but Arrowroot 

 * Condensed from Miss Leslie's Cookery Book. 



I 



