HERBS

_\ great diversity of plants belong under this heading and their uses are; numerous—(1) as vegetables, (2) for flavoring soups, sauces, and pickles, and as garnishes, (3) to make herb or medicinal teas. Those used principally as vegetables are frequently termed Pot-herbs, or are designated by the still wider title of greens. Those employed chiefiy for favoring purposes are generally known as Sweet herbs. Among the most popular kinds are basil, bay-leaf, chervil, dill, marjoram, mint, parsley, sage, savory, tarragon, and thyme. All of these, and a number of others of le common use, are described in their alphabetical positions. A ‘‘bouquet,’’ or ‘‘faggot,’’ of herbs is a bunch tied together for ready sale. Dried herbs should be kept in a dry place, for they readily absorb moisture and become moldy. HERRING (see the color-page facing 294). Of the many species of herring, the chief are the Clupea harengus of both sides of the North Atlantic, and the almost identical pall as it of the Pacific Coast. Our principal fisheries are located along New King land. The fish, of an average size of eleven to fourteen inches, are usually caught by gillnets or brush-weirs, or in scoop nets. The yearly harvest amounts to hundreds of millions. They are consumed in many forms—fresh, pickled, and smoked. The young also become ‘‘sardines,’’ and those still smaller constitute the bulk of the catch of the famous English ‘‘whitebait.’’, The great quantity of food thus represented is of vital importance to a large proportion of the population of northern Kurope, and the catching and curing of the fish furnish employment for you sands. Our domestic catch—a great deal le than that of Europe and of comparatively minor national importance—is supplemented by the annual importation of from sixty to seventy (or more) million pounds of the cured product, chiefly from Canada, Newfoundland, and Labrador, with le er quantities from Great Britain and Ireland, the Netherlands, and Scand in a via. When fresh-caught and promptly cooked by boiling or broiling, herrings are both wholesome and agreeable for consumption fresh, but the principal demand here is for the smoked or pickled fish, as the fresh herring if fried, or if kept long, becomes strong and oily and is apt to offend the stomach. The best grades of the cured fish are on the other hand highly esteemed asa relish, and salted herring is credited with diuretic Ph. ew properties by some physicians—perhaps because of the free quaffing of water or other liquids which generally follows its consumption. Bismarck herring is the whole fish put wp in a pickle flavored with spices, pieces of red pepper, onions, ete. Bioaters (which see) are half-cured whole herring. Bonele herring, other than that in cans or jars, is the dry-cured fish ready prepared for the broiler. Kippered herring is the fish split, salted, dried, and smoked. Milchner herring is the pickled soft-roe fish, the roe being converted into a sauce by rubbing through a sieve. Red herring is a whole English herring salted and smoked. The title is of English origin, distinguishing the smoked fish from the ‘‘white’’ herring, preserved by salting only. Soused herring is another title for Pickled herring. More fancy kinds in elude “‘Delicate ,’’ or Filet (filleted), herring in wine sauce or in oil; Roll Mopse (pickled rolled fillets); small fish in tomato sauce, etc. HICKORY-NUTS (see the second color-page facing 346). The hickory-nut is closely allied to the walnut. There are many varieties but, with few exceptions, all those of noteworthy food value can be cla ified under the names of Pecans, Shagbarks (Carya ovata), and Shellbarks (C. laciniosa). Shagbarks are also known locally as ‘‘little shellbarks’’? and ‘*white hickory’’; and Shellbarks as ‘‘big,’’ or ‘*bottom,’’ shellbarks, and ‘‘big shagbarks,’’ ‘“‘king nuts,’’ and ‘‘western hickory.’’ The ‘‘shaghark’’ and ‘‘shellbark’’ titles record the peeling, or shelling off, of the bark of the old trees in broad, shaggy strips. The true ‘‘shellbark’’ strips are narrower than the ‘‘shagbark.”’ Pecans are marketed under their own distinctive title and are so treated in this volume. The other two species are the standard ‘‘hickory-nuts’’ of everyday consumption. The shagbarks are considered the more desirable, the shell being thinner and the meat whiter, and (generally) of better flavor. Some of the shellbarks are, though, excellent in quality and very large—frequently to a length of two inches. One occasionally comes acro a tree of the Pignut hickory (C. glabra) which yields sweet, good-flavored nuts of thin, or only medium-thick, shells, but as a rule the pignuts are greatly inferior to the shagharks and shellbarks, and they are seldom marketed. The tree, found only in North America, is tall, handsome, and symmetrical in typical varieties of all the four species cited.