1440 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OP PRACTICAL HORTICULTURJ 



are split, dried and ground witli a mortar 

 and pestle. The sifted flour is placed in a 

 hollow in the sand on a convenient river 

 bank and leached to free it from the bit- 

 ter principles present. From the leached 

 meal a porridge or mush is made, which 

 to the ordinary palate is much improved 

 by the addition of salt. 



These typical Indian foods, when well 

 prepared, are relished by many persons 

 who have tried them, and it seems not 

 improbable that improved methods of 

 removing the tannin and bitter principles 

 present in most varieties of acorns might 

 result in the utilization of the acorn 

 crop, which is fairly large throughout 

 most regions of the United States and is 

 generally wasted. 



According to Chesnut's investigations, 

 the California buckeye or horse-chestnut 

 IS also used by the Indians as a food and 

 is leached to free it from poisonous or 

 objectionable matters in much the same 

 way as the acorn. Many attempts have 

 been made in Europe and elsewhere to 

 treat the fruit of the common horse-chest- 

 nut in some way so that it might be made 

 wholsome and palatable, for it undoubt- 

 edly contains an abundance of nutritive 

 material, particularly starch; but none of 

 these attempts has been really successful. 



In many regions nuts are commonly 

 added to ordinary bread dough, and such 

 nut bread is a favorite and staple food. 

 The use of partly extracted peanuts and 

 other nut meals with wheat and rye flour 

 for bread making should also be men- 

 tioned. Such breads have been used for 

 patients with diabetes, but have never 

 come into general use, perhaps because 

 they are not very palatable, since the nuts 

 become rancid so readily. In this con- 

 nection the coarsely ground or shredded 

 and dried cocoanut so common in our 

 markets should be mentioned. Sugar is 

 often added during the process of manu- 

 facture. Such prepared cocoanut is com- 

 monly used when it is not convenient to 

 use the fresh nut. The cocoanut is much 

 used in fancy cooking in the United 

 States. In regions where it is grown it is 

 a staple food. The pulp of the imma- 

 ture nut is considered a delicacy, and is 



used in many ways. When frozen and 

 served as an ice it is said to be especially 

 delicious. The meat of the ripe nut is 

 used in the preparation of a great variety 

 of dishes, including sweets as well as 

 other foods, and the cocoanut milk, par- 

 ticularly that of the unripe nut, is a very 

 common and wholesome beverage. The 

 so-called "milk" is in reality water which 

 the plant stores in the nut and is very 

 pure, containing only a little mineral mat- 

 ter, sugar, etc., in solution. In addition 

 to the fact that it is palatable and usual- 

 ly cool, it IS a much safer beverage than 

 water from some possibly contaminated 

 spring or stream. 



Hut Candies 



One of the most extensive uses of nuts 

 is in the manufacture of candy of various 

 sorts, such as sugared almonds, burnt al- 

 monds, nut chocolates, caramels, penoche, 

 nut brittle, etc. While there are some dif- 

 ferences in the process of manufacture 

 followed in these candies, they all in the 

 main consist of nuts and sugar in vary- 

 ing proportions, with flavoring extracts, 

 and in some instances butter and flour. 

 Perhaps the best known nut candy the 

 world over is nougat, which is of Oriental 

 origin, and is a compound originally made 

 of nuts and honey, but now more often of 

 nuts and sugar. Usually almonds, fil- 

 berts, pistachios, and pinenuts are em- 

 ployed in nougat making, but the kind of 

 nut is necessarily very largely a matter 

 of convenience. Sometimes burnt al- 

 monds are used instead of the blanched 

 nuts. The nougat which our confection- 

 ers supply is soft in texture, but a brittle, 

 hard sort is made in Europe and is im- 

 ported to this country from Spain, the 

 oblong blocks, about 6 by 4 by 2 inches, 

 being wrapped in wafer and sealed in tins. 



The table shows the composition of com- 

 mon sorts of nut candy. As may be seen, 

 the water content is low and these candies 

 are highly concentrated foods. On ac- 

 count of the added sugar the carbohy- 

 drate content is high. The proportion of 

 nuts used in candies varies. By assuming 

 that the nuts furnish the bulk of the fat 

 in the candy it is estimated that nuts con- 

 stituted about 50 per cent in the speci- 



