The fruit of the Cucurbitaceoe contains from 90 to 95 per cent, of water. In the melon this is a virtue, as it produces its juiciness ; in the raw cucumber it is objectionable, as it dilutes the dressing for salad. A juicy cucumber is, there- fore, best sliced, salted, and pressed before use as salad. The most watery is the small pumpkin or gourd called vegetable marroxo. Merely boiled in water it is nearly taste- less, and only helps to moisten a dry dish ; but it acquires quality by being stewed with consomme or standard broth, and dried considerably during the stewing, so as to get its juices more concentrated and its taste more pronounced. This fruit bore its proper name of gourd up to about 1830, after which its present appellation came into vogue. Some eat it plain-boiled, tuith sauce; others stewed and glazed. When stuffed or farcied and steioed it becomes an excellent ragout-like dish. Cucumbers. Cxicximbers may be treated in the same manner as gourds provided they be not too thin and suflBciently ripe to easily part with their seed-pulp. Stewed, and in sauce, after previous soaking in salt water and vinegar, called marin- ading, they yield a ragout which is very suitable as garnish. The juice must be suitably reduced. Pumpkins. The pumpkin, French potiron, German Kiirbis, is used by the French with great dexterity for the production of soups, purdes, creams, tarts, and other entremets. It is a resource of the kitchen in many colonies, e.g., the Cape of Good Hope, where the Kaffirs almost live upon it at certain times TOPINAMBUR 339 of the year. A iminphin cake is called potiron d V antiquaille, and is an excellent compound pudding. Pumpkin puvie, with some liqueur, or with Parma cheese, is very soft. Pumpkin sieved with eggs and cheese is a nutritious and wholesome dish. The rich yellow colour of preparations of pumpkin is an essential part of their attracting qualities. Topinamhur, or Girasol Artichoke. This plant belongs to the vegetables with compound flowers, and is nearly related to the sunfloxver-plant, which has the largest blossom of any plant of the moderate zone. Its botanical Latin name is Helianthxis iuherostes. It was brought to Europe from Brazil in 1617, and came to us by way of Italy, where, in common with the ordinary sun- flower, it passed by the name of girasol, from the suppo- sition, not borne out by observation, that it always turned the full face of its flower to the sun. As the tubers have some similarity in taste to the artichoke flower-head, the plant received the name of girasol artichoke, which the ability of mankind for the corruption, particularly of foreign languages, has transformed into Jerusalem artichoke. To this has now been added an extension of the ‘ plant ’ in the so - called Palestine soup, a pur4e of topinamhur. This circumstance reminds of the common belief that Jordan almonds, which arrive first, with other dry fruit, about Christmas, came from the river Jordan in Palestine. But Jordan almonds derive their name from an enterprising Englishman who reared and planted them at Malaga, and have nothing whatever to do with the East. As regards our girasol, we should insist on the preservation of its primitive American or Indian name, topinamhur. In our latitude it is propagated by the planting of tubers, like the potato, and the yield is very much like that of the potato.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The fruit of the Cucurbitaceae contains from 90 to 95 per cent, of water. In the melon this is a virtue, as it produces its juiciness ; in the raw cucumber it is objectionable, as it dilutes the dressing for salad. A juicy cucumber is, therefore, best sliced, salted, and pressed before use as salad. The most watery is the small pumpkin or gourd called vegetable marrow. Merely boiled in water it is nearly tasteless, and only helps to moisten a dry dish ; but it acquires quality by being stewed with consomme or standard broth, and dried considerably during the stewing, so as to get its juices more concentrated and its taste more pronounced. This fruit bore its proper name of gourd up to about 1830, after which its present appellation came into vogue. Some eat it plain-boiled, with sauce; others stewed and glazed. When stuffed or farcied and steioed it becomes an excellent ragout-like dish. Cucumbers. Cucumbers may be treated in the same manner as gourds provided they be not too thin and sufficiently ripe to easily part with their seed-pulp. Stewed, and in sauce, after previous soaking in salt water and vinegar, called marinading, they yield a ragout which is very suitable as garnish. The juice must be suitably reduced. Pumpkins. The pumpkin, French potiron, German Kiirbis, is used by the French with great dexterity for the production of soups, purdes, creams, tarts, and other entremets. It is a resource of the kitchen in many colonies, e.g., the Cape of Good Hope, where the Kaffirs almost live upon it at certain times [illustration: TOPINAMBUR] of the year. A pumpkin cake is called potiron d V antiquaille, and is an excellent compound pudding. Pumpkin puree, with some liqueur, or with Parma cheese, is very soft. Pumpkin sieved with eggs and cheese is a nutritious and wholesome dish. The rich yellow colour of preparations of pumpkin is an essential part of their attracting qualities. Topinambur, or Girasol Artichoke. This plant belongs to the vegetables with compound flowers, and is nearly related to the sunflower-plant, which has the largest blossom of any plant of the moderate zone. Its botanical Latin name is Helianthus tuberosus. It was brought to Europe from Brazil in 1617, and came to us by way of Italy, where, in common with the ordinary sunflower, it passed by the name of girasol, from the supposition, not borne out by observation, that it always turned the full face of its flower to the sun. As the tubers have some similarity in taste to the artichoke flower-head, the plant received the name of girasol artichoke, which the ability of mankind for the corruption, particularly of foreign languages, has transformed into Jerusalem artichoke. To this has now been added an extension of the ‘ plant ’ in the so - called Palestine soup, a puree of topinambur. This circumstance reminds of the common belief that Jordan almonds, which arrive first, with other dry fruit, about Christmas, came from the river Jordan in Palestine. But Jordan almonds derive their name from an enterprising Englishman who reared and planted them at Malaga, and have nothing whatever to do with the East. As regards our girasol, we should insist on the preservation of its primitive American or Indian name, topinamhur. In our latitude it is propagated by the planting of tubers, like the potato, and the yield is very much like that of the potato.

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