So OUR VIANDS
with leaves and earth.* It remains in this state a day or
two, when the parties to whom the fruit belongs dig a
hole and take out what they want. Bread-fruit baked
in this way will keep good for several weeks after the
oven is opened.' In the Sandwich Islands the bread-fruit
is eaten raw, or cooked by throwing it on the fire till
the outer rind becomes charred and the inner opens out
like a smoking loaf of bread ; the taste is said to resemble
hard-boiled egg. There is another way of preparing bread-
fruit, by throwing it in a heap and allowing it to ferment,
it is then beaten into a kind of paste called mahi, and will
keep for months, but is sour and indigestible.
The South Sea Islanders also make a kind of bread
of the root of the Pia ( Tacea pinnatifida), which is beaten
to a pulp and subjected to repeated washings, when it
forms a sort of arrowroot.
Taro, of which we often read in books of travel in the
South Seas, is the root of Arum escuhntum, which, like
the manioc, requires steeping and boiling or baking to
make it wholesome. It is cooked in the same way as
the bread-fruit, and then beaten into a paste-like dough
called Poe, which is eaten by being scooped out with
the forefinger of the right hand and placed in the
mouth, a practice which has caused that finger to be
named the Poe finger.
In West Africa Pea-nut bread is eaten. This is made
by roasting and crushing the nuts and pressing the paste
into the skin of a banana.
In Abyssinia TefT-bread, made from Poa Abyssinica^ is
* This is precisely the process adopted by the Australians for
cooking snakes, as described later.
VARIOUS BREAD-STUFFS 51
commonly eaten. This is made by placing the pounded
grain mixed to a paste with water in a jar, and placing
it at some distance from the fire until it begins to ferment,
it is then made into large circular cakes and baked. The
taste although sour is not disagreeable, and it is used at
their banquets of raw meat, the meat being cut up small,
seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, and wrapped in
the bread which is soft and spongy, and is often used
as a table napkin, for Bruce says every man wipes his
fingers on a piece of this Teff-bread, and leaves it for the
next comer, which, he says truly, is a disgusting custom.
The native Australians have no bread, but they crush
and eat the seed of the nardu plant, so well known as
having formed the sole food of the explorers Burke and
Wills until they died of starvation, the seeds being
inadequate to support life.
The Chinese make a bread, eaten by all from the
emperor to the meanest peasant, of a paste of kidney
beans made into great flat cakes like cheeses, it is very
white, and is eaten raw or boiled with fish and herbs, and
sometimes fried in oil, or dried and smoked and mixed
with carraway seeds.*
* See 'Empire of China,' 'Navarette' Pinkerton's Travels, vol. i.
CHAPTER IV
CAKES AND PUDDINGS
Our viands
1893Page 22
Presented as published in 1893. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
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So OUR VIANDS
with leaves and earth.* It remains in this state a day or
two, when the parties to whom the fruit belongs dig a
hole and take out what they want. Bread-fruit baked
in this way will keep good for several weeks after the
oven is opened.' In the Sandwich Islands the bread-fruit
is eaten raw, or cooked by throwing it on the fire till
the outer rind becomes charred and the inner opens out
like a smoking loaf of bread ; the taste is said to resemble
hard-boiled egg. There is another way of preparing bread-
fruit, by throwing it in a heap and allowing it to ferment,
it is then beaten into a kind of paste called mahi, and will
keep for months, but is sour and indigestible.
The South Sea Islanders also make a kind of bread
of the root of the Pia ( Tacea pinnatifida), which is beaten
to a pulp and subjected to repeated washings, when it
forms a sort of arrowroot.
Taro, of which we often read in books of travel in the
South Seas, is the root of Arum escuhntum, which, like
the manioc, requires steeping and boiling or baking to
make it wholesome. It is cooked in the same way as
the bread-fruit, and then beaten into a paste-like dough
called Poe, which is eaten by being scooped out with
the forefinger of the right hand and placed in the
mouth, a practice which has caused that finger to be
named the Poe finger.
In West Africa Pea-nut bread is eaten. This is made
by roasting and crushing the nuts and pressing the paste
into the skin of a banana.
In Abyssinia TefT-bread, made from Poa Abyssinica^ is
* This is precisely the process adopted by the Australians for
cooking snakes, as described later.
VARIOUS BREAD-STUFFS 51
commonly eaten. This is made by placing the pounded
grain mixed to a paste with water in a jar, and placing
it at some distance from the fire until it begins to ferment,
it is then made into large circular cakes and baked. The
taste although sour is not disagreeable, and it is used at
their banquets of raw meat, the meat being cut up small,
seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, and wrapped in
the bread which is soft and spongy, and is often used
as a table napkin, for Bruce says every man wipes his
fingers on a piece of this Teff-bread, and leaves it for the
next comer, which, he says truly, is a disgusting custom.
The native Australians have no bread, but they crush
and eat the seed of the nardu plant, so well known as
having formed the sole food of the explorers Burke and
Wills until they died of starvation, the seeds being
inadequate to support life.
The Chinese make a bread, eaten by all from the
emperor to the meanest peasant, of a paste of kidney
beans made into great flat cakes like cheeses, it is very
white, and is eaten raw or boiled with fish and herbs, and
sometimes fried in oil, or dried and smoked and mixed
with carraway seeds.*
* See 'Empire of China,' 'Navarette' Pinkerton's Travels, vol. i.
CHAPTER IV
CAKES AND PUDDINGS