Our viands

The present importation of dried figs into Great Britain must be enormous. Many years ago, from Turkey only, it amounted to nine hundred tons annually, besides those coming from France, Italy, and Spain. GRAPES, FIGS, AND ORANGES 187 The fig enters very little into recipes for cooking — it is too luscious and devoid of pungency ; but I have tasted green figs from the Cape, preserved in bottles, which are excellent, although the peculiar, resinous flavour would perhaps not quite suit everybody's palate. There seems no good reason why this should not be added to our list of English preserves. Thousands of green figs are allowed to drop off the trees year after year, which might thus be utilised and rendered valuable, especially in seasons of scarcity of other fruits. A writer in 1846 estimated that 272,000,000 oranges were imported annually into Great Britain, allowing about a dozen to every individual, and adds : * This extraordinary consumption of a product which is brought here from very distant places, is a natural consequence of certain qualities which fit the orange in a remarkable degree for being the universal fruit of commerce. If we would have foreign figs and grapes, they must be dried, for the undried grapes which we bring even from the short distance of Portugal are flat and vapid; the tamarind is a liquid preserve; the guava must be made into a jelly; the mango destined for us requires to be pulled before it is ripe, and is pickled; the date must be dried, and the cocoa-nut becomes, when here, consolidated and indigestible. But the orange, man may have fresh in every region of the world, and at almost every season of the year. The aromatic oil and the rind, preserve it from the effects both of heat and cold, and the acridity of the former renders it proof against the attacks of insects. It is true that oranges rot like other fruits, but that does not happen for a long time if the rind is uninjured and 1 88 OUR VIANDS they are kept from moisture, and so ventilated as not to ferment.' * With the improved means of transport since the above was written the import of oranges must have increased enormously, so that now it would be almost impossible to estimate the number imported, although the tonnage might perhaps be found by reference to the Board of Trade returns. It is, however, sufficient for our purpose to know that now, all the year round, oranges and lemons may be bought at a penny a-piece, and often at three or four a penny, whilst only a few years ago they could scarcely be eaten before Christmas, and were not to be had after June. Nevertheless, the facility with which they are now conveyed, even from Australia, does not tend to the perfection of the fruit, inferior sorts being thrown on the market, because of their abundance, to the partial exclusion of those which require greater care in cultivation and in packing. The St. Michael — prince of oranges — is now seldom to be seen, whilst thick-skinned, coarse-grained, and bitterish-flavoured varieties are foisted upon the purchaser as equally good. Very few people are good judges of oranges in the fruiterers' shops : they look to size and darkness of skin, instead of weight, fineness and delicacy of skin, with medium size, which are the points of excellence in an orange. The genuine St.