A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER VI.

CUR­RANTS, RAISINS, FIGS, RICE, SUG­AR, SUG­AR CAN­DY, &C., SA­GO, MIL­LET, GIN­GER, NUT­MEG, MACE, PI­MEN­TO OR ALL­SPICE, PEP­PER, AND CAYENNE PEP­PER.

What are Cur­rants?

A kind of small raisins or dried grapes.

Whence are they brought?

From sev­er­al is­lands of the Archipela­go, par­tic­ular­ly Zante and Cephalo­nia; and from the Isth­mus of Corinth, in Greece.

Do they grow on bush­es like our Cur­rants?

No, on vines like oth­er grapes, ex­cept that the leaves are some­what thick­er, and the grapes much small­er: they have no pips, and are of a deep red, or rather black col­or.

When are they gath­ered, and how are they dried?

They are gath­ered in Au­gust, and laid on the ground in heaps till dry; they are then cleaned, and put in­to mag­azines, from which they are tak­en and packed in bar­rels for ex­por­ta­tion.

What do you mean by Ex­por­ta­tion?

The act of con­vey­ing goods for sale from one coun­try to an­oth­er.

What are Raisins?

Grapes pre­pared by dry­ing them in the sun, or by the heat of an oven. Raisins of Dam­as­cus, so called from the cap­ital city of Syr­ia, near which they are cul­ti­vat­ed, are very large, flat, and wrin­kled on the sur­face; soft and juicy in­side, and near­ly an inch long. Raisins of the sun, or jar raisins, so called from be­ing im­port­ed in jars, are all dried by the heat of the sun; they are of a red­dish blue col­or, and are the pro­duce of Spain, whence the finest and best raisins are brought. There are sev­er­al oth­er sorts, named ei­ther from the place in which they grow, or the kind of grape of which they are made, as those of Mala­ga, Va­len­cia, &c.

In what man­ner are they dried?

The com­mon way of dry­ing grapes for raisins, is to tie two or three bunch­es of them to­geth­er while yet on the vine, and dip them in­to a lye made of hot wood-​ash­es, mixed with a lit­tle olive oil. This makes them shrink and wrin­kle: af­ter this they are cut from the branch­es which sup­port­ed them, but left on the vine for three or four days, sep­arat­ed on sticks, in an up­right po­si­tion, to dry at leisure. Dif­fer­ent modes, how­ev­er, are adopt­ed, ac­cord­ing to the qual­ity of the grape. The com­mon­est kinds are dried in hot ovens, but the best way is that in which the grapes are cut when ful­ly ripe, and dried by the heat of the sun, on a floor of hard earth or stone.

_Lye_, a liquor made from wood-​ash­es; of great use in medicine, bleach­ing, sug­ar works, &c.

What are Figs?

A soft, lus­cious fruit, the pro­duce of the fig-​tree. The best figs are brought from Turkey, but they are al­so im­port­ed from Italy, Spain, and the south­ern part of France. The is­lands of the Archipela­go yield an in­fe­ri­or sort in great abun­dance. In this coun­try they are some­times plant­ed in a warm sit­ua­tion in gar­dens, but, be­ing dif­fi­cult to ripen, they do not ar­rive at per­fec­tion. The figs sent from abroad are dried by the heat of the sun, or in fur­naces for the pur­pose.

_Lus­cious_, sweet to ex­cess, cloy­ing.

What is Rice?

A use­ful and nu­tri­tious grain, cul­ti­vat­ed in im­mense quan­ti­ties in In­dia, Chi­na, and most east­ern coun­tries; in the West In­dies, Cen­tral Amer­ica, and the Unit­ed States; and in south­ern Eu­rope. It forms the prin­ci­pal food of the peo­ple of east­ern and south­ern Asia, and is more ex­ten­sive­ly con­sumed than any oth­er species of grain, not even ex­cept­ing wheat.

_Nu­tri­tious_, whole­some, good for food.

Does it not re­quire a great deal of mois­ture?

Yes, it is usu­al­ly plant­ed in moist soils, and near rivers, where the ground can be over­flowed af­ter it is come up. The Chi­nese wa­ter their rice-​fields by means of mov­able mills, placed as oc­ca­sion re­quires, up­on any part of the banks of a riv­er; the wa­ter is raised in buck­ets to a prop­er height, and af­ter­wards con­veyed in chan­nels to the des­tined places.

What is Sug­ar?

A sweet, agree­able sub­stance, man­ufac­tured chiefly from the Sug­ar Cane,[1] a na­tive of the East and West In­dies, South Amer­ica and the South Sea Is­lands; it is much cul­ti­vat­ed in all trop­ical coun­tries. The ear­li­est au­then­tic ac­counts of sug­ar, are about the time of the Cru­sades,[2] when it ap­pears to have been pur­chased from the Sara­cens, and im­port­ed in­to Eu­rope.

[Foot­note 1: Most of the sug­ar in Eu­rope is made from beets.] [Foot­note 2: See Chap­ter XVII., ar­ti­cle Nav­iga­tion.]

_Au­then­tic_, true, cer­tain.

_Cru­sades_, holy wars.

_Sara­cens_, Turks or Arabs.

How is it pre­pared?

The canes are crushed be­tween large rollers in a mill, and the juice col­lect­ed in­to a large ves­sel placed to re­ceive it; it is then boiled, and placed in pans to cool, when it be­comes im­per­fect­ly crys­tal­lized, in which state we use it. This is called raw or soft sug­ar: loaf sug­ar, or the hard white sug­ar, is the raw brown sug­ar, pre­pared by re­fin­ing it till all for­eign mat­ter is re­moved.

Is the Sug­ar Cane the on­ly veg­etable that pro­duces Sug­ar?

All veg­eta­bles con­tain more or less sug­ar, but the plant in which it most abounds is the sug­ar-​cane. In the Unit­ed States, a large quan­ti­ty of sug­ar is pre­pared from the sap of the Sug­ar Maple Tree. The trees are tapped at the prop­er sea­son by a cut be­ing made in the bark, and the juice runs in­to a ves­sel placed to re­ceive it; it is then pre­pared in the same man­ner as the juice of the sug­ar cane.

What is Sug­ar Can­dy?

Sug­ar pu­ri­fied and crys­tal­lized.

What is Bar­ley Sug­ar?

Sug­ar boiled till it is brit­tle, and cast on a stone anoint­ed with oil of sweet al­monds, and then formed in­to twist­ed sticks.

What is Sa­go?

A sub­stance pre­pared from the pith of the Sa­go Palm, which grows nat­ural­ly in var­ious parts of Africa and the In­dies. The pith, which is even eat­able in its nat­ural state, is tak­en from the trunk of the tree, and thrown in­to a ves­sel placed over a horse-​hair sieve; wa­ter is then thrown over the mass, and the fin­er parts of the pith pass through the sieve; the liquor thus ob­tained is left to set­tle. The clear liquor is then drawn off, and what re­mains is formed in­to grains by be­ing passed through met­al dish­es, with nu­mer­ous small holes; it is next dried by the ac­tion of heat, and in this state it is ex­port­ed. The Sa­go Palm al­so pro­duces sug­ar.

What is Mil­let, and in what coun­tries does it grow?

Mil­let is an es­cu­lent grain, orig­inal­ly brought from the East­ern coun­tries. It is cul­ti­vat­ed in many parts of Eu­rope, but most ex­ten­sive­ly in Egypt, Syr­ia, Chi­na, and Hin­dostan, whence we are fur­nished with it, it be­ing rarely cul­ti­vat­ed among us, ex­cept as a cu­rios­ity.

_Es­cu­lent_, good for food.

For what is Mil­let used?

It is in great re­quest amongst the Ger­mans for pud­dings; for which it is some­times used amongst us. The Ital­ians make loaves and cakes of it.

What is Gin­ger?

The root of a plant cul­ti­vat­ed in the East and West In­dies, and in Amer­ica; it is a na­tive of South-​east­ern Asia and the ad­join­ing is­lands.

De­scribe its na­ture and use.

It is a warm aro­mat­ic, much used in medicine and cook­ery. The In­di­ans eat the root when green as a sal­ad, chop­ping it small with oth­er herbs; they al­so make a can­dy of it with sug­ar. The gin­ger sold in the shops here is dried, which is done by plac­ing the roots in the heat of the sun or in ovens, af­ter be­ing dug out of the ground. Quan­ti­ties not on­ly of the dried root, but al­so of the can­died sug­ar, are im­port­ed.

What are Nut­megs?

A del­icate aro­mat­ic fruit or spice, brought from the East In­dies. The nut­meg tree great­ly re­sem­bles our pear tree, and pro­duces a kind of nut, which bears the same name as the tree.

[Il­lus­tra­tion: GLASS BLOW­ING AT THE GLASS-​WORKS, PITTS­BURGH, PA.]

What is the ap­pear­ance of the Nut­meg?

Its form is round, and its smell agree­able. The nut­meg is in­closed in four dif­fer­ent cov­ers; the first, a thick fleshy coat, (like our wal­nut,) which opens of it­self when ripe; un­der this lies a thin red­dish net­work, of an agree­able smell and aro­mat­ic taste, called mace; this wraps up the shell, which opens as the fruit grows. The shell is the third cov­er, which is hard, thin, and black­ish; un­der this is a green­ish film of no use; and in the last you find the nut­meg, which is the ker­nel of the fruit.

What are its us­es?

The nut­meg is much used in our food, and is of ex­cel­lent virtue as a medicine. It al­so yields an oil of great fra­grance.

Is the Mace used as a spice?

Yes, it is sep­arat­ed from the shell of the nut­meg, and dried in the sun. It is brought over in flakes of a yel­low col­or, smooth and net-​like, as you see it in the shops. Its taste is warm, bit­ter­ish, and rather pun­gent; its smell, aro­mat­ic. It is used both in food and medicine, as the nut­meg, and al­so yields an oil.

_Pun­gent_, of a hot, bit­ing taste.

What is Pi­men­to or All­spice?

The dried un­ripe berry or fruit of a tree grow­ing in great abun­dance in Ja­maica, par­tic­ular­ly on the north­ern side of that is­land, on hilly spots, near the coast; it is al­so a na­tive of both In­dies. The Pi­men­to Tree is a West In­di­an species of Myr­tle; it grows to the height of twen­ty or thir­ty feet; the leaves are all of a deep, shin­ing green, and the blos­som con­sists of nu­mer­ous branch­es of small, white, aro­mat­ic flow­ers, which ren­der its ap­pear­ance very strik­ing; there is scarce­ly in the veg­etable world any tree more beau­ti­ful than a young Pi­men­to about the month of Ju­ly, when it is in full bloom.

When is the time to gath­er the spice?

About the month of Septem­ber, not long af­ter the blos­soms are fall­en, the berries are gath­ered by the hand; one la­bor­er on the tree, em­ployed in gath­er­ing the small branch­es, will give em­ploy­ment to three be­low (who are gen­er­al­ly wom­en and chil­dren) in pick­ing the berries. They are then spread out thin­ly, and ex­posed to the sun at its ris­ing and set­ting for some days; when they be­gin to dry, they are fre­quent­ly win­nowed, and laid on cloths to pre­serve them bet­ter from rain and dew; by this man­age­ment they be­come wrin­kled, and change from green to a deep red­dish brown col­or. Great quan­ti­ties are an­nu­al­ly im­port­ed.

What are its us­es?

It forms a pleas­ant ad­di­tion to fla­vor food; it al­so yields an agree­able es­sen­tial oil, and is ac­count­ed the best and mildest of com­mon spices.

_Es­sen­tial_, pure; ex­tract­ed so as to con­tain all the virtues of the spice in a very small com­pass.

Why is it called All­spice?

Be­cause it has been sup­posed to com­bine the fla­vor of cloves, nut­megs, and cin­na­mon; the French call it _round clove_, from its round shape, and the taste be­ing some­what like that spice.

What is Pep­per?

The prod­uct of a creep­ing shrub, grow­ing in sev­er­al parts of the East In­dies, Asia, and Amer­ica.

In what man­ner does Pep­per grow, and what part of the shrub is used?

Pep­per is the fruit of this shrub, and grows in bunch­es or clus­ters, at first green; as it ripens it be­comes red­dish, un­til hav­ing been ex­posed for some time to the heat of the sun, (or prob­ably gath­ered be­fore per­fect­ly ripe,) it be­comes black, as in the con­di­tion we have it. There are two sorts, the black and the white.

What is the White Pep­per?

The white pep­per is mere­ly the black de­prived of its out­side skin. For this pur­pose the finest red berries are se­lect­ed, and put in bas­kets to steep, ei­ther in run­ning wa­ter, or in pits dug for the pur­pose, near the banks of rivers. Some­times they are on­ly buried in the ground. In any of these sit­ua­tions, they swell and burst their skins, from which, when dry, they are care­ful­ly sep­arat­ed by rub­bing be­tween the hands, or fan­ning.

What is Cayenne Pep­per?

The dried fruit of a plant called bird pep­per, a na­tive of both In­dies. It is more pun­gent than the oth­er sorts.