176  New  Vegetable  Foods  and  Fruits.    {Am^l^h  fgSm' 
the  south  and  has  been  on  sale  in  the  northern  markets  for  more 
than  a  year  at  a  price  not  excessive,  considering  the  high  food  value. 
Like  other  members  of  the  arum  family  the  tubers  are  very  acrid 
in  the  fresh  state  and  should  not  be  tasted  or  eaten  raw. 
The  food  value  is  about  50  per  cent,  greater  than  that  of  the 
potato  and  the  dasheen  can  be  prepared  and  used  in  every  way  in 
which  potatoes  are  used.  It  is  mealy  in  texture  and  somewhat 
nutty  in  flavor.  The  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  has  issued 
several  small  leaflets  giving  recipes  for  methods  of  preparing  this 
new  and  interesting  food.  Its  subsequent  development  depends,  of 
course,  upon  the  popular  demand.  If  this  is  created,  the  dasheen 
can  doubtless  be  grown  to  market  at  about  the  same  price  as  po- 
tatoes. Considering  that  it  is  a  well-known  staple  in  the  West 
Indies,  particularly  in  Trinidad  and  in  some  oriental  countries,  and 
that  its  nearest  botanical  relation  in  the  vegetable  foods,  the  taro, 
is  the  principal  food  of  millions  of  natives  of  tropical  and  sub- 
tropical countries,  the  possibilities  of  the  dasheen  are  very  great. 
It  sells  at  from  12  to  15  cents  a  pound  in  some  of  the  larger  groceries 
and  in  the  Chinese  quarter. 
Egg  Plant. — The  fruit  of  Solatium  Melongena,  of  which  the 
purple,  large-sized  variety  is  best  known,  is  also  found  in  a  smaller 
white  or  yellow  variety  about  the  size  and  shape  of  an  egg,  from 
whence  probably  the  name  originated.  The  names  "  brinjal"  and 
"  aubergine  "  are  also  applied  to  this  fruit. 
Fats  and  Oils. — Of  the  fats  and  oils,  corn  or  maize  oil,  ex- 
pressed from  the  germ  of  the  maize  kernel,  and  a  by-product  in  the 
manufacture  of  corn  products,  is  probably  the  most  recent  and  is 
coming  to  be  widely  used  in  cooking  for  either  deep  fat  frying  or 
shortening. 
The  hydrogenated  fats,  those  in  which  liquid  vegetable  oils  are 
-converted  into  solid  fats  by  the  use  of  nascent  hydrogen  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  catalytic  agent,  such  as  nickel,  are  also  coming  to  be  widely 
used.  The  oldest  and  best  known  of  these  is  Crisco,  which  is  a 
coined  and  trade-marked  name. 
A  number  of  butter  substitutes  have  recently  appeared,  in  which 
cocoanut  oil  is  the  predominant  fat  instead  of  the  mixture  of  beef 
and  hog  fats  used  as  the  basis  of  the  older  types  of  oleomargarine. 
Feijoa. — Under  this  name  has  appeared  in  the  Western  markets 
a  fruit,  also  known  as  the  pineapple  guava,  which  is  described  as 
possessing  the  refreshing  taste  of  the  pineapple,  the  richness  of  the 
