BANANAS AS FOOD 113 



lished an elegant little booklet of recipes for cooking 

 bananas. " Paper-bag Cookery Manual," by C. Hermann 

 Senn, also Contains many useful recipes. A selection of 

 these is given in the Appendix. 



Preserved Bananas. Pere Labat continues : " To pre- 

 serve them like figs, raisins, and other dried fruits, they 

 are allowed to ripen thoroughly in the house, in which 

 condition the skin is very easily removed ; they are then 

 cut lengthwise into four, and dried on a trellis -like stand 

 in the sun or in an oven after the bread has been baked ; 

 the fruit becomes covered with white sugary powder 

 deposited from its own juices. In this condition they will 

 keep for years." 



" Banana figs " are now prepared in Jamaica and 

 exported in increasing quantities (see Chapter XXXI) ; they 

 are also dried in India to supply a local demand (see 

 Chapter XXIII). Their special value, as Labat points out, is 

 that they keep well. It has been stated that experiments are 

 being made in Austria with banana figs as part of the army 

 rations ; and for all purposes where it is of consequence 

 to have food in small compass, which keeps well and is 

 available for eating as bought, or when cooked, banana 

 figs form an ideal provision. A housekeeper with a store 

 of them has always the material at hand for toothsome 

 dishes. They are packed in pound cardboard boxes which 

 contain fifteen to twenty of the fruit. The price, sixpence 

 a box, is within the reach of all. 



Banana Flour. Again, Pere Labat says : " The Indians 

 make a paste from the fruit, which they carry with them 

 on their voyages, serving them as nourishing food and 

 drink. Those who wish to make this paste with more 

 care, dry the bananas at first in the oven or in the sun, then 

 they grate them, mix them with powdered sugar and a 

 small portion of powdered cinnamon, clove and ginger, 

 ever so little flour and the white of an egg to bind all these 

 things together ; this mixture is made into small cakes 

 which are dried in the oven or sun, and are very good and 

 nourishing." 



