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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1952-06-26, Page 7n ()Jam Arkatte,ws TA1.4 It won't be long now before the fed and white currants are ripe —although, for that matter, it seems yon don't see many bushes of the white variety these days. And here are some recipes which make good use of those saute de- licious—even though a bit bothcr- eome—currants. o o 'CURRANT PIE Make tip 2 -cup pastry recipe. Roll out 9-ineh pie shell, reserving . some of pastry for lattice top. Wash and stens 3 cups currants, crush slightly in large bowl. Mix well 1/ tblsp, quick -cooking tapi- oca, 1/2 tsp. salt. Stir into currants until all berries are coated, Pour into pie shell. Top with a lattice of pastry. Bake in hot oven (425°) 10 min- utes; reduce heat to 350° and bake 30 minutes longer, or until set in centre. Serve with whipped cream top- ping. Serves six. o ° PINK CURRANT SPONGE Soften 2 envelopes gelatin in / e. cold water; dissolve in 1 c. boil- ing water; add Si c. sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved; add is c. lemon juice, • j c. cold water; chill until thick and syrupy; beat until stiff 6 egg whites. Gradually add gelatin mixture to egg whites, beating constantly. Mixture stiffens as you beat. Put through sieve, colander or food mill 1 c. washed stemmed cur- rants. Fold into gelatin -egg-white mix- ture until thoroughly blended. Pour into 2 -quart mold which has been rinsed with cold water. Chill until firm (about 4 hours). Serve with Currant Sauce (see recipe). Serves six. O 0 SWEDISH PANCAKES Sift together in large bowl 1 c. flour, 1 tblsp. sugar, / tsp. salt. Beat just enough to blend yolks and whites 3 eggs; stir into eggs 3 c. milk; add liquid ingredients gradually to dry ingredients, stir- ring to mix well. Let stand two hours. This lets batter thicken so that the cakes will hold their shape on the griddle. Heat pancake griddle until drop of water. will dance on the surface; brush with butter. Beat the batter again; spoon 2 tablespoons for each cake onto griddle.. Brown on both sides. Spread with Currant Sauce; roll up and sprinkle with powdered 'sugar. Makes about 24 dessert -sized pancakes. O 0 CURRANT SAUCE Bring to boil / c. water; add / c. sugar; simmer 5 minutes to make syrup; add 2 c washed, stemmed currants; simmer until berries heat through. Make a paste of 2 tblsp. corn- starch and / c. cold water. Add small amounts of hot cur- rant mixture to cornstarch paste. Then stir into mixture in pan. Cook, stirring, until thick and clear, about ten minutes. O 4 0 FROZEN CURRANT JAM Put through mill enough cur- rants to make 34 c. puree (use some slightly under -ripe currants). Measure into bowl 6 c. sugar; put in saucepan 1 box powdered pectin, 1 c. cold water. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil hard one minute. Remove from heat; immediately add sugar and puree. Stir until sugar dissolves and mixture be- gins to thicken, about 5 minutes. (Near end of stirring period the mixture begins to form small curds as it thickens.) Taste jam to be sure all sugar crystals have clisap- peared—if not, 1<eep stirring! Pour into frozen containers. Cover, let stand in cool place until jellied ---about 24 hours. Seal air tight and freeze. Makes 3; pints. 0 0 FREEZING CURRANTS Whole fruit: Rinse ripe currants in cold water; pick off leaves and imperfect berries. 'Shake off the water, then pick the berries directly into the freezer containers. Seal airtight. Freeze at once. These work up best into desserts that use mashed currants, or the juice, rather than the whole fruit. Currant juice: Wash ripe cur- rants well. Shake off water and pick from stems enough currants to make 3 quarts. Arid 1 cup water; bring to boil and simmer, covered, 10 to 15 minutes. Strain through cheese cloth; chill; dip juice into freezer containers; seal air -tight; freeze. Use in jelly or for - O 4 0 CURRANT PUNCH Combine 1 c. sugar, 1 qt. currant juice, 3 c, apple juice, 1 qt. ginger ale. Stir until sugar dissolves; chill. Serve over ice. Makes 24 servings. O $ 0 CURRANT COOLER Heat to make Syrup: 2 c. water, 1 c. sugar; stir in 2 c. currant juice, / c. lepton juice, 6 tblsp. frozen orange concentrate, 1• tsp. almond extract. Chill and just before serving add 2 c. ginger ale. Serve over ice. Makes 12 glasses. O 4, 0 CURRANT ICE Combine 1 c. sugar, 2 c. water, c. light corn syrup, % tsp. salt. Boil together to form a syrup, about 5 minutes. Cool. Add 1 c. currant juice. Pour into refrigerator tray. Turn cold control to highest point. Freeze partially; spoon into chilled bowl and. beat well (but not until melted, or sherbert will be splintery). Return to refrigerator; freeze firm. Serves 6. O 4 0 CURRANT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE Melt in 9 -inch square baking pan / c. butter: add 1 c. sugar. Mix and spread over bottom of pan. Put in 1/ c. currants. Beat until thick and lemon colored 3 egg yolks. Add gradually 1 c. sugar; stir in % c. currant juice or water. Sift together 1 c. sifted cake flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, / tsp. salt. Fold into egg yolk mixture. Beat stiff 3 egg whites. Fold into batter. Pour over cur- rants. Bake in moderate oven (350°) 55 minutes. Serves 8 to 10. SALLY'S SALLIES "It's our new door mat. It saves you the trouble of wiping your shoes," .13{ iiMitataVr' NN.YOHuM, 'High" School Work --Student volunteers begin the task of taking clown some S00 classroom chairs that were found atop this high school. School authorities attributed the act to pranksters who must have worked all night to have accomplished so myth. Police Siren —For the benefit of the Nevw"fork Police - women's Endowment Association the big city's lady gendarmes recently • staged their third annual entertainment and. dance. Police -woman Mary Zaharko vividly demonstrates the transition from blue uni- form to frills. At left, she's seen as she dresses when on regular duty. At right, she is seen in 'her fetching stage c.ostume. Plants Work Overtime In this age of, food shortages scientists are finding ways to make plants increase their yield, for many can be made to bear fruit twice a year if the seasons ire just right. In the Arctic Circle where it is the sun shines almost continuously, daylight nearly all summer and wheat grows much faster: Hot -houses make plants bear fruit which they would not do under normal conditions; so does soil that"is heated electrically. Now Dutch scientists are advising the authorities at Kew on "artificial daylight' by which they are pro- ducing strawberries,' potatoes and other crops all the year round. Tomatoes and Cucumbers are made to yield months before their normal time. Our scientists have long known that plants can be forced by such methods, but so far have made little practical use of them. The Dutch have developed such meth- ods and hope in the near future to grow much of their food in ware- houses! Sea Language Often Misused First, let: us take the windward - leeward, weather -lee combinations. These are misused by the uninitiat- ed, oftener, perhaps, than any other seafaring terms. We speak of a vessel beating "to windward" or running "too loo'ard," and that is correct. But we do not speak of a "windward (or•leeward) side" of anything. "Weather, side" and "lee side" are the correct terms. The distinction is that 'windward" and "leeward" refer to directions (al- most always preceded by the pre- position "to") while "weather" and "lee" refer to tangible objects. Thus, we. walk over "to windward" (direction) to reach the "weather rail" (tangible object), etc. The forward -aft, fore -after com- binations may be similarly describ- ed. "Forward" and "aft" refer to directions (though the preposition "to" is never used with them) while "fore" and "after" .refer to tangible objects. You walk -I'M -ward or aft (directions) to reach the fore peak, after peak foremast, after rigging, after deck, etc. (all of them tangible objects). There is no such thing as an "aft deck" (so frequently seen in print these days), as any real sailor can testify. "Aft" and "after" run true to form in all instances; but when we go forward we encounter a few difficulties. This is because "fore" is indistinguishable, phonetically, from "four " Suppose the captain on a small passenger liner orders the "fore" lifeboats lowered and finds the mate .lowering all four 1 To avoid such confusion, "fore" usually gives way to "forward" itt the plural (e.g., fore hatch, but forward hatches) . There are instances when it does so in the singular, also (e.g., forward locker instead of fore locker) and we can only add that just what these in- stances are is a matter that ex- perience alone can teach. It must be understood that the nautical tongue is largely idiomatic, and that only a few expressions are subject to rules of usage such as we have attempted above, Eventually we learn to use seafaring terns cor- rectly simply because they sound right; and we can offer no better solution to the problem. There is no textbook to follow but, as an aid to beginner and. veteran alike, we do highly recommend "Two Years Before the Mast" as a trea- sure house of nautical terms proper- ly expressed. Closely allied to "forward" and "aft," are "ahead" and "astern." The Latter term's are used when re- ferring to directions beyond the confines of a vessel. A sailor goes forward; but his ship goes ahead. Or he looks 'aft (for seine article on deck, say) hut he looks astern when his gaze ;saes beyond the confines, of his ship. "Haul'; and "heave" (often mis- used) are easily explained. You haul on e line by hand; you heave on it by, machinery. Thus, when you lead the "hauling part" of a tackle (dr any line, for that natter) to a winch, capstan, or windlass, you heave on it thereafter; and that is true 'whether the machinery in question; be power or hand oper- ated. "Hoist:" refers to something com- paratively heavy that is lifted by a tackle, as a sail, small boat, slingload of cargo, etc. An anchor, however, is never hoisted, even by hand. It is "hove up" (by machin- ery) or. "picked up" or "weighed" (by any .means) — From "Deep \Vater Diction " by Jerry Graham, in "On and Off Soundings," edited by William H. Taylor. 90% Of The People Live C.rowieg B lbP They',re on show again—the tu- lips, bluebells, lilies -of -the -valley, irises,;,ecillas; and before long the dahll o begonias, and many more of ftlte @xoSt attractive flowers of 'Se'grow from bulbs -or -"-bulb h�,{' -'`structures which enable them eo be "rested" and conveni- ently, stored for varying periods, thus ensuring that there is at least one bulb flower every month of the year. This accounts for their ever- growing popularity with gardeners, and for the prosperity of the bulb industry, which now has an an- nual turnover of millions of dollars. Around Spalding and other parts of East Anglia, in the Scilly Isles and the West Country, more than 3,000 acres arc devoted to produc- ing 400,000,000 blooms and about 15,000;000 bulbs for sale. There are sixty kinds of lily to be had, but none of them is native to Britain. The white arum lily is probably the oldest of all and is mentioned a great deal in the Bible. The first English garden lilies were grown at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign in 1596. In the Russian steppes, where the lily grown in . great quantities in the early spring, its bulb is eaten by the Cossacks. This is not as surprising as you might, think for a prominent mem- ber of the bulb family is the ordin- ary onion. Tulip bulbs were first planted in England in 1577, and during the past thirty years they have been .•intensely cultivated in Lin- colnshire. They came front Persia origin- ally and were called "tulipans, '• front tulpan, a turban, which they .were supposed to resemble. The Dutch have always been the mas- ter -growers of tulips. Ninety per cent of the inhabi- tants of the Scilly Isles live on or by bulb -growing. Careful breed- ing has extended the season of bloom from November to ,Tune, and the 2,500 islanders are depend- ent on the $2,000,000 it brings in yearly. The industry owes its existence to Augustus Smith. He did not plant the first bulbs in the dis- trict, for they have grown wild there for as long as can be remem- bered. It was Smith, however, who conceived the idea of culti- vating bulb plants for profit. In 1881 he despatched the first box 'of flowers to Covent Garden Market, and for his pains he re- ceived one sovereign from a dealer in London. That was "big money" in those days, but it 'did not int- press the farmers of the Scilly Isles for some time. Then they were hit by an acute agricultural depression catised by the failure of the potato trade. They decided to try enitivating bulb -flowers as Smith had suggest- ed, and prepared portions of their land for this. After the first year the result was never in doubt. Desi=tea Making Porcelain Ceramics have always b n rightly divided into two distinct classes—pottery and porcelain, The term "porcelain" includes those articles produced by mineral ele- ments known by their Chinese names of kaolin and pet untse (known as hard paste), and arti- ficial porcelain (known as soft paste). . Porcelain is translucent and breaks with a smooth fracture, either shell-like or granular ac- cording to its composition, hard or soft paste. Pottery is opaque and breaks with a rough fracture, that is, will show rough edges where broken. Specimens of Chinese porcelain had found their way to England as early as 1506, when a present of some "Oriental china bowls" was made to Sir Thomas Tren- chard, then High Sheriff, by Philip of Austria, when he visited Wey- mouth, being driven there -by stress of weather during his voyage from the Low Countries to Spain. Amongst the New Year's gifts to Queen Elizabeth, 1587-88, were "a porringer of white porselyn and a cup of green porselyn," presented by Lord Burghley and Robert Cecil. The secrets of manufacture were well kept by the Celestials, and inquisitive travellers were regaled with many a hoax. which, in de- fault of better information, was retailed and believed in Europe. Thus Lord Bacon, certainly one of the best -informed men of his time, in an argument at the bar during the impeachment of Haste, speaks of the "mines" of porcelain, "which porcelain is a kind of plaster buried in the earth, and by length of time congealed and glazed into that fine substance." Another fable was that the mysterious porcelain cups were of such a nature as to betray poi- son by a sudden change of trans- parency. It must, of course, be borne in mind that, before the Cape of Good Hope had been doubled by the Portuguese traders, every specimen brought home had been carried across the desert on the backs of camels, and that, owing to the monopoly of Eastern trade, enjoy- ed first by the Portuguese and subsequently by the Dutch, the English East India Company was shut out front importing Oriental porcelain for some time after its formation. • The first true hard porcelain pro- duced in Europe was made in Sax- ony in the year 1709, and fostered by the keen personal interest of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, this manufac- tory became in a few years famous for its productions. In England potters had not been idle in attempting to produce, like their Continental rivals, a material that would compare favourably with the real porcelain of China. The Chelsea factory commenced prior to 1745. We know that Hey- lyn and Frye, the proprietors of the Bow factory, applied for a pa- tent in 174—From "Pottery and Porcelain," by Frederick Litchfield. Carving a Railroad The day arrived for tite ground breaking. It was January 8; 1863, and the nearby American River had overflowed its banks. Leland Stan- ford, governor of the state by that date as well as president of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, turned the soil with a spade of silver. The silver was borrowed, but silver it .had to be; a good show was needed. Bales of hay had been thrown on the :mid to give hint footing. There were cheers and speeches. Huntington was not there. had told his associates: "If He you want to jubilee in laying the first spike there, go ahead and do it. Z don't, These mountains look to* ugly and I see too much worle ahead'. We may fail, and I want to have as few people know it as we can." He might have added: "We're tackling earth and granite—moun- tains of it—with nothing but picks and shovels, and one-horse carts. We're tackling remote forests with nothing but axes. We're taking on an untried job, one for which there's no precedent. And I have to meet the payroll." Construction had start' rl e western end, the end farther from the source of supplies. tains provided earth, timber, and stone. All else—rails, rolling stock, black powder, picks and shovels, carts and wheel-Larrows—had to come from the opposite seaboard. Most of it had to be shipped around the Horn. The country between California's valley and the Rockies was known for its -hardships to emigrant wagon and overland mail coach. It was still an almost untouched wilder- ness. The Sierra Nevada, the grand obstacle which was in sight of Sacramento on clear days, was an abrupt escarpment gashed by gran- ite gorges, and so steep in its pass - that wagons sometimes had been lowered down certain of the jump- offs by ropes and chains... For many years after the road was finished, overland trains halted and passengers got out and gaped at "Cape Horn," an awesome spot where the railroad bed was built out from a cliff two thousand, five hundred feet above the American River. "How will we ever carer rail- road down there, even the begin- nings cf one?" wondered t. cheer, "Leave it to me. I'll lower some Chinks down in baskets," said Sam Montague. And that is what was done. The good-natured Chinese pick -and - shovel men were swung down to where they could peck at the rock and establish a trace for the crow- bar and :clack -powder men who fol- lowed. By blasting and shoveling, the line was thrown into the hill at all except two points, respective- ly one hundred and two hundred feet in length, where heavy retain- ing walls were given the Atlaslike job of supporting the rails. — Re- printed by permission from "South- ern Pacific," by Neill C. Wilson and Frank J. Taylor. High To Eye—Finding the wheat on his father's farm is as high) as a little boy's eye, five-year- old Dale Stewart offers t' gible evidence to back the govern- ment's predictions that western wheat prospects are "excellent" this year. Religious Crowns Stolen—From behind the ornate bronze eccrs in right photo, two religious crowns, studded with jewels donated by parishioners and worth about $700,000, were stolen from the Regina Pacts Votive Shrine in Brooklyn. Arrow shows where they sawed hole in protective door. At left, Msgr. Angelo Cioffi, pastor of ihe shrine, affixes ihe crowns to a painting of the Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus a week before the robbery. The Crowns, minus some of the jewels, were later returned anonymously.