Our viands

Currants — red, white, and black — are most valuable fruits to the British housewife, for, although even at the best they are too acrid to be much relished as dessert fruits, they are largely employed in puddings, pies, tarts, and preserves — indeed, some people add red currant juice to all preserves, which appears to me a great mistake, being calculated to destroy the flavour of the other fruits to which it is added. Used alone, the juice of the red currant forms the most delicious jelly in universal use as an accompani- ment to game, venison, and roast mutton, and for making sauce for various puddings. The black currant, which is a different species, has excellent medicinal properties, and 200 OUR VIANDS finds an honourable place in the Pharmacopoeia; indeed, there is nothing better for sore throat, hoarseness, and cold on the chest, than black currant jam, or jelly, with boiling water. There is a belief that tons of black currants get exported to Oporto yearly, to supplement the juice of the grape in making that famous vino cC Oporto which for centuries has been the panacea of all physicians, and the source of many of the ills it is supposed to cure. Turning to the gooseberry — also a native British fruit — we find it more used in the green than in the ripe state. Green gooseberry puddings and pies, green gooseberry jam, gooseberry-fool, and that famous beverage of our grand- mothers— green gooseberry wine — which, when well made, was a fair home substitute for champagne — such are a few of the uses of this much-esteemed fruit. South African colonists compare this old British fruit with that which is called the Cape gooseberry, and are inclined to believe — like our American cousins with the Indian corn — that theirs is the genuine article and ours the counterfeit, forgetting that centuries before the Cape gooseberry was known, the British fruit was widely cultivated and highly esteemed. The Cape gooseberry is, in fact, no gooseberry, but a kind of winter cherry, which, although much relished by those who are accustomed to the flavour, is not quite to the taste of those who enjoy the British gooseberry; and although it makes a splendid jam — which might, we believe, be imported profitably — yet the resinous flavour requires an educated palate to be fully appreciated. This fruit is also cultivated in India, and a jam known as teparee is made from it, and sometimes imported. Few colonists have the opportunity of tasting our British STONE FRUITS AND BERRIES 201 fruits in perfection, and especially berries, such as goose- berries, which, when ripe, should be picked and eaten from the bush, as they get flat and tasteless when sent to market. We venture to think that could they wander through an English garden when gooseberries — yellow, green, and red — are ripe, they would find them worth running the risk of a few scratches from the superabundant thorns, to obtain. The same may be said of the raspberry, and that universal favourite the strawberry, both of which, to be enjoyed in perfection, should be picked and eaten where they grow. Nevertheless, tons of strawberries find their way daily to Covent Garden market from the provinces, and even from Jersey and France, in the season, to be eaten and enjoyed by those who, if they had to pick for themselves, would never taste a berry.